


The Feast at Humanity's End

by The Oldman (Olderestman)



Category: God Eater (Video Games)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Fights, Friend Insert, Gen, Intrigue, Post-Apocalypse, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:28:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 42,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24989842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olderestman/pseuds/The%20Oldman
Summary: One day, without warning, a man is ripped from his calm, mostly content life and plunged into a future darker than any he could have imagined. Now, in a world wracked with a plague of monsters, he asks the question: can he really make a difference?(This story is a Friend Insert: a collaborative story where the main character is a self insert written by the co-creator, with them having absolutely no foreknowledge about the setting at all, while the the main author has no control over their actions.)
Kudos: 7





	1. At Humanity's End

**Author's Note:**

> To expound on what is said on the summary:
> 
> A Friend Insert is a more experimental type of collaborative work. One in which the author writes the world and the characters in this fic, while the co-creator writes a self-insert character which interacts with those elements.  
> The distinguishing factor, however, is that the co-creator is one-hundred percent blind to the setting. They have not seen, read, watched or listened a thing about it.
> 
> Thanks to this, they cannot make plans to reach a golden ending before they even start writing; they have no prior information to even begin to do so.  
> But by virtue of the fact that the author does not control their actions, and they are very much their own person, they are capable of taking desicions in-story that can very well derail the plot from the constraints of canon and cause events to evolve in a different direction.
> 
> For the continued integrity of the project, the co-author remains blind to the setting, except for what is explicitly stated in story, and remains that way until the conclusion is reached. 
> 
> In this particular Friend Insert story, I, The Oldman, am the author, while Xan Lazy Eldritch Writer, is the co-creator.  
> I urge that you DO NOT directly contact Xan for commentary or feedback; first run it by me so I can vet it, so as to prevent someone accidentally spoiling him with information he does not yet know. 
> 
> With all that said, let's begin in earnest.

The young man woke up with a start, coughing as he felt dust entering his nostrils. _‘I just woke up and already the day’s gone to shit. Sounds about right,’_ he snarked internally, before casting about himself. The sight he was treated to completely stopped all thought.

He was lying on a cold, hard floor, dust and debris digging into his back. The walls were worn down, their surfaces lacking paint and marred with several cracks. He couldn't see any furniture, but some rusted steel beams were propped up not far from him. Light streamed into the room from behind him, and when he turned to face the source, he saw that there was a large hole in the wall, as if someone had demolished it.

Johan numbly felt his heart thump in his chest as he pushed himself to his feet, putting one hand on a wall for support. “Did I get kidnapped?” he muttered, ice in his veins and panic churning in his gut. He staggered towards the opening in the wall and peered out, the arm not pressed against the wall shaking with nervous adrenaline.

He was on the second floor of a building; across from him and to the sides he saw several other structures with similar or worse signs of disrepair. On the street below, the road was only dry dirt. Here and there he saw trash bags strewn around. There were several lampposts lined up on the other side of the road which were in much better condition than their surroundings, surprisingly. Their power-lines were still connected, and there were no signs of rust or damage as far as he could tell from his vantage point.

Johan roughly ran a hand through his tangled hair, scratching his scalp in an effort to release some of the panicked tension that was inexorably filling his body. “Did I sleep through the fucking apocalypse?!” the young man asked the sky, not really expecting an answer.

“Okay, okay,” he muttered to himself, adjusting the frames of his glasses (and thank _god_ he still had those, he’d be even more fucked if he didn’t). “Come on, Johan. Keep it together.” As he turned back towards the room he was in, he kept up a steady stream of muttering, trying to distract himself from the situation he’d found himself in. He looked around the room for a door, because _fuck_ climbing out of what looked to be a bomb hole.

Deeper into the room, barely visible through the dark, he saw a doorframe. He couldn't get a good look at what was on the other side from where he was standing, however.

After looking at the steel beams and determining that none of them were small enough to carry or damaged enough to _make_ that small, Johan managed to find a piece of the blasted wall that was looser than the rest. With a mighty tug, the debris came free. _‘It’s no Excalibur, but it’s better than nothing.’_

His mighty weapon in hand, the youth approached the doorway from the side, and peered around the corner, nervous sweat dripping down the bridge of his nose.

From the angle he looked at it, he could see the hinges of a door that was nowhere in sight; further ahead he could only see a corridor which was mostly unlit, except for a bit of light filtering from a similar, but much smaller hole on a wall.

 _‘No point in stickin’ around. Maybe I’ll find someone else if I leave, or some food and water.’_ Johan took a deep, shaky breath, then exited the room, then walked slowly down the corridor, keeping his head on a swivel, his rock in a white-knuckled grip, and his mouth clamped shut. His ears were pricked for any noise; hopefully he’d be able to hear over the pounding of his heart.

As he moved forwards, he couldn't hear much aside from the rhythmic drumming of that fist-sized organ. Along the way he found other rooms, but they were in the same sorry state as the one he had woken up on. When he reached the end of the hallway, he found a staircase. The part leading to higher floors was collapsed, but the same couldn't be said of the one leading down, and while it looked like it had seen better days, it didn't look like it would break as soon as he put a foot on it.

His eyebrow twitched. _‘First I wake up in an unknown shithole, and now I have to deal with_ stairs _? Seriously,_ fuck _today.’_ Embracing his irritation as a buffer against panic, Johan descended the flight of stairs, keeping the hand that _wasn’t_ clutching a piece of debris like it was the One Ring pressed against the wall for stability.

The trip down was uneventful, and the stairs beneath the collapse section were clear of obstructions. The stairs led him to a similar hallway, and through the next set, he could see daylight illuminate them.

After pausing to listen intently and giving the hallway a cursory glance, Johan proceeded down the next flight of stairs, hoping that once he managed to leave this run-down dump he’d actually be able to find someone. Antisocial shut-in he might’ve been, but he was fucking _scared_ , and—

Johan exhaled sharply and massaged his brow, sweat trickling between his fingers. _‘I can’t panic, I_ won’t _panic. Not now, not yet.’_

The staircase led, surprisingly, straight into the street. Stepping out into the daylight and squinting until the lenses of his glasses darkened, he looked around for signs of life. While he couldn't see any people around, now that he was closer to the ground he could get a better look at everything. Now that he looked at them, the trashbags he'd seen were in perfect condition, if filled with scrap and food wrappers. Further ahead, he could see that the some of the lampposts had something taped to them at eye height.

Johan slowly walked over to the nearest lamppost, looking around nervously and keeping his rock gripped in both hands. Once he got there, he looked at the message taped to the metal.

On the center of the poster, he saw a striking logo. It was gold and black, and seemed to be some sort of edgy...boar-wolf thing? The effort put into the image reminded Johan of some coats-of-arms he’d seen pictures of, but he wasn’t anything resembling an expert on crests or heraldry.

It seemed like it was supposed to be intimidating, but he just thought it seemed like the artist was trying a bit too hard. Looking at the top of the poster, he saw Japanese characters.

Now, Johan had _started_ to learn Japanese a while back, but he wasn’t anything approaching fluent, so the characters should’ve been little more than pretty lines.

_But they weren’t._

At the bottom of the poster there was more writing; in full the poster read as:

_"Now Recruiting. Join the God Eater Corps. For the following week, Fenrir personnel will be at the Main Street to perform Possible Match testing and transport to the Far East Branch Headquarters. All applicants welcome."_

Leaving aside his sudden-onset instant translation abilities (something he’d be thinking more about once he was somewhere _safe_ ), this seemed to be his best bet at finding out what the everloving _shit_ was going on. The term “God Eater”, aside from being the height of Eighth-Grade Syndrome, sounded vaguely familiar, but in his panic Johan couldn’t be bothered to parse his shitty memory for it.

While the brunet had little desire to join any sort of military organization, which he figured this “Fenrir” was, he also had to consider the possibility that he’d be safest if he found these people.

After looking around for a bit, Johan noticed that, at the end of the road he was on, a _much_ wider street crossed its path. ‘ _Fuck it,’_ he thought tiredly. _‘I may as well see where the hell I am, and if I’m gonna get killed by roving gangs of Mad Max bandits or hordes of radioactive zombies. If so, maybe they’ll do me a favor and shoot me now.’_

…

Okay, so maybe this wasn’t the _best_ time for dark humor, but he’d take it over gibbering panic.

After proceeding a ways down the road towards what he _assumed_ was Main Street, he started to hear sounds of activity: voices, the scuffing of shoes on the ground...ordinarily such a cacophony would be unpleasant to him, but in a situation like this it was as good as a symphony.

As he continued following the road, he managed to overhear someone yelling in annoyance.

"Ah, damn it, I swear this fuckin' thing can't get any reception these days!" grumbled a gruff, elderly voice in Japanese. Just like the recruitment flyer, he understood the words perfectly.

As he reached the corner of the street, he saw the person who had spoken up. He was a balding, grey-haired old man who was a good head shorter than him. Currently he was knocking on a weathered and small LED television currently displaying static sitting on top of a pile of rubble.

Johan walked over to the man, stopped a few feet away and cleared his throat, his rock lowered but no loser in his grip than before. In spite of his nervousness, he managed to have the presence of mind to try to address the man in Japanese; maybe his translator also let him _speak_ the language? “E-excuse me, sir,” he managed to get out, his nerves causing the rest of his sentence to catch in his throat.

And indeed, he’d spoken in flawless Japanese.

The man turned to face the youth with an irritated expression. "Eh? What do you want, kid? Can't you see I'm busy here?"

The younger man coughed into a fist, looking away. Rallying his nerves, Johan managed to eke out, “Sorry, sorry! I just wanted to know if this was where those Fenrir guys were gonna be. Didn’t mean to trouble you…”

The old man glared at him almost as if he was _disgusted_ at Johan. "Don't tell me you're gonna join up with those Fenrir spooks! You're of the right age, but you'd be better off avoiding those bastards."

Johan flinched at the worsening of the man’s attitude, then replied shakily, “Join them? I don’t even know who they are! I just want to know where I am, and what the fu– what happened to everything!” His voice raised and became more and more shaky with panic as he spoke.

"What? Were you born yesterday? What do you mean you don't know who they are?" the man growled at him. "What, did you hit your head or someth—"

At that moment, the television let out a shrill sound which pierced both of their ears and then finally displayed an image.

"Ah, so now you start working!" the man groaned and shook a fist at the television.

The thing displayed on the television was a cityscape. It looked completely normal and mundane, complete with the honking of cars, clattering of construction equipment and other of the many different sounds that could be heard on one's busy city life.

However, those sounds began to fade out into silence, and the image of the many skyscrapers began to transition into a different image, one from the same position but a different time.

 _‘Fuck. This really_ is _the aftermath of the apocalypse, isn’t it?’_ Johan shuddered at the chilling image. _‘How the_ hell _did this happen?’_

He scowled. _‘Oh, who am I kidding. Even odds that_ we _did this to ourselves_ . _’_

Though most of the buildings were in the same position, many had collapsed, those that still stood had absolutely massive, perfectly circular holes bored into them. The sky was lit a bright orange as the sun slowly moved downwards.

The shot displayed on the screen changed to another place still in the city, judging by the surroundings. A chewing noise could be heard in the background, coming from the right. The camera panned in that direction slowly. Eventually, on the very corner of the screen a long appendage could be seen. It was covered in black fur with grey rings around it, and at the very tip was a strange, stone-like object, almost like it was a sculpture of the end of a tail.

There was a sudden cut to a boot crunching on the ground, moving from left to right. The camera then switched to show a young man with a steely, determined expression. He wore a light military uniform of some sort, the logo he had seen earlier was emblazoned on his back, worn like a badge of pride. In his hands he held a long blade. It was shaped somewhat like a combat knife, with a serrated edge near the hilt, but it was of incredible size, looking almost as big as the person holding it.

 _‘Holy fuck! What is this, Bleach?’_ Johan stared incredulously at the colossal blade that would’ve made Ichigo Kurosaki blush and let out a low whistle in spite of himself. An unpleasant idea began to form in the back of his mind.

As he moved forward, the same chewing noise from before could be heard. The man crouched right next to a large piece of debris, keeping quiet before peering above it. The camera moved to focus on his eyes and the cold, unmoving expression on his face.

And then it switched to the ground, quickly panning up and forwards as the sound suddenly stopped, treating him to the sight of a monstrous creature.

The _thing_ looked like a sabre-tooth tiger...if said tiger was also a _demon_. Its fangs had to have been at least the length of Johan’s arm, and a crown of strange protrusions encircled its head. Even more bizarre were the fleshy, cape-like growths on its back, a deep crimson as though dyed with fresh blood.

Frankly, the creature was something out of a nightmare, and just seeing it _on a screen_ made Johan feel terrified. And if that video was for recruitment, like he thought it might be…

The bespectacled brunet shuddered, the ice in his veins that he’d thought he’d subdued finding ample cause to return with a vengeance in the thought that something like _that_ could exist.

The creature noticed the man peeking out and let out a mighty roar, shaking the camera slightly. In turn the man vaulted over his cover at this and charged the beast. The footage slowed down as a filter covered the screen.

"On that day, mankind was driven into a corner," a voice narrated over the footage, which changed to show the cityscape he had seen before as it was being destroyed, large clouds of smoke and dust rising into the air. The screen immediately displayed the monster and man already fighting, the tigerlike beast driving one of its paws into the ground as the young man took a jump backwards and lunged at the exposed limb with his blade. The creature roared as the sharp metal dug into its flesh.

"The Aragami threat was a catastrophe like no other in the history of humanity," the voice continued to speak, even as the man quickly removed his sword and slashed at the face of his enemy. "All would have have been lost if not for those who rose up..."

The monster roared and swatted at the youth with his other paw, but he easily avoided the strike before driving the entire length of his blade into its forehead.

"And filled their hearts with righteous anger to strike back at the gods."

Johan stared at the screen, mouth slightly agape. If _this_ was the kind of thing that was to be expected, this kind of life and death combat against monsters that _were apparently gods?!_

…

He was so, _so_ fucked.

Johan’s fists gripped the sides of his jeans, white knuckled as he did everything in his power to suppress his panicked, terrified shaking.

He was _mostly_ successful.

The screen faded to black before showing the man walking away and into a collapsed building. He delved inside for a little bit before coming across a rusted door,

"Always remember...if you ever feel yourself filled with indignity and rage for our broken world," the narrator continued as the man opened the door, bringing light into a dark room where a child with slightly tanned skin trembled before looking upwards at the man. "If you ever feel like you want to _make a difference..._ " The camera showed the man stretching out his right hand, which held an enormous and perhaps even unwieldy red armlet or manacle, with a smile, backlit by the gleaming sunlight. "Then simply answer the call."

The child reached out to his hand and grasped it firmly, the screen showing a closeup of the hands clasping before the image faded into a handshake, one with the hand of the child replaced by an older one, which also held the same red manacle. "And join the God Eaters."

The old man he was having a discussion from pulled him out of his focus by scoffing. "Make a difference, they say! Oh yeah, what a crock of shit. I still can't believe they're putting up their goddamn propaganda even after cutting down on ration sizes just a day ago."

Johan coughed into his fist, still feeling twitchy. “I-I see. Sounds like these…’God Eaters’ aren’t doing too well, then?”

"Feh!" the man grunted before spitting on the floor. "I bet those bastards just want to recruit new meat to put it on the grinder. I'm sure they like their screams." He shook his head before turning off the TV. "You better stay the hell away from them, if you keep your head low and stay away from _there_ ," he gestured towards the direction Johan would have gone towards had he not stopped to talk with the old man. "Then you'll be golden. Understood?"

Johan sighed shakily, a great weariness coming over him. “Trust me, sir. The _last_ thing I’m interested in is fighting, _especially_ those… _monsters._ ” At this he shuddered, then continued. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I have much choice. Going by the way you’ve been talking, and by their propaganda, I’m guessing that this ‘Fenrir’ group runs things?”

"Course they do!" he ground out. "And I've already told you, stay the hell away from them, keep your head low until their little recruitment drive is over and done, and then you won't have to deal with those spooks. Now scram, I've got things to do."

Johan reached up and massaged his forehead. “I see. Well, thank you for your time, sir.” With a nod, he walked over to a wall and leaned on it. He needed a moment to stop and really _think_ about what he’d just learned...and hopefully reign in the panic attack that he was _sure_ he’d soon have.

 _‘Okay. Fenrir is the..government? Military? Both? And they’re training people to become ‘God Eaters’, which I_ assume _means hunting those..._ things. _’_ Upon returning to the memory of the nightmarish tiger monster, Johan hugged his arms to himself and shook, tears threatening to fall. ‘ _No! There’s no_ time _to panic!’_ The brunet berated himself, _‘I’m in a post-apocalyptic world that apparently has fucking god-monsters, and I have_ nowhere _to go! I have to figure out what to_ do!’

Reaching back to the things he’d learned about mediation, he began to take deep, even breaths, focusing on nothing but the next inhalation or exhalation. After a minute or two, the shaking had stopped, and his mind was... _reasonably_ clear.

He bit his lip and considered his options – well, his _option_ , really. He had nowhere to go and no food, water, or any other necessities. Nor, for that matter, did he have much information about the world, or even much about Fenrir. He also suspected that the old man was perhaps a _bit_ biased against the group.

Thus, he really could see only one reasonable path that could get him both answers and a fucking _meal_. He needed to meet with these Fenrir people.

And, while Johan did detest violence, there was some part of him that had _roared_ with approval when the man on the screen had called out for those who wanted to make a difference. Maybe, just _maybe_ , whispered a little voice inside him, _he_ could make a difference.

That little voice was promptly joined by the much louder protestations of his empty stomach. So, heart and gut aligned, Johan stood away from the wall, tossed his rock aside, and began to walk, fists balled and jaw tight, towards the way the old man had told him _not_ to go. Said man saw him go against his instructions and shot him a dirty look before going on about with his business.

As he went down the road, Johan began to see that while the streets were mostly empty, there was some transit, and it all went down the same path he was taking. As he kept going, he noticed that all of them were of different age, but none looked too old. The eldest person he saw couldn't have been older than 22.

As he kept going down the road, he saw a pair of people moving on an opposite direction to the rest. A child and a woman, both with red hair.

"Hey mommy! Do you think Kota will have time to come visit?" the girl asked loudly, enough that he could hear her even at a distance.

"Don't worry Nozomi, I'm sure he will," the woman replied while bringing a hand to her chin before she passed by him. "Although I'm worried for him. He gets distracted often, so I only hope nothing happens to him..."

"Don't worry! Don't worry!" the child parroted back at her mother with a smile. "Big bro is always paying attention when it counts! I'm sure he'll be fine and he'll go beat up the Aragami! He'll be the best at that!"

The woman chuckled and said something else which he couldn't really hear.

Johan felt caught between a smile and a wince. It was always nice to hear a family having faith in one another, but the very real possibility that their brother could die against a monster...that was sobering.

Shaking his head slowly, he put the matter from his mind and kept walking.

Eventually he reached a part of the street where a large number of people congregated. There were several green tents arrayed along the sides of the streets, with people with similar uniforms to the one Johan had seen in the propaganda video with the old man. There was a small barricade made of rubble which made it so the tents were inside an enclosure; it wasn't tall enough to keep people out, simply serving the purpose of establishing a boundary. He and several other young men and women were called out to by a uniformed man, asking them to form up in a line to make mobilizing them faster.

"Alright, thank you all for coming to the Possible Match tests," said the man, his bored expression making it clear he'd been at this for a while now. "Now, we're gonna need you all to follow a single line and move one at a time. When your turn is up, please follow one of our staff members into a tent, where we'll move onto testing. Don't worry, it's just taking a blood sample, nothing too bad. When the test is complete we will tell you the results immediately. If you're a match, then congrats, you can move onto the Aptitude Test either right this week as we take you to the Far East Branch HQ, or sometime later if there's unfinished business that'll take longer. If you're not a match, then please leave the premises without causing a disturbance. Are there any questions?"

Johan was sorely tempted to raise his hand, but refrained. He had _many_ questions, but most of them weren’t ones he thought he should be asking with a bunch of people around him, and the rest were ones he figured either would be answered shortly or quickly become irrelevant, depending on what the result of his test was. As such, he remained still in place, a light sheen of sweat on his brow and his heart pounding in his chest.

It seemed that everyone who came there didn't have any questions of their own, as they didn't raise their hands either. At this silence, the man nodded. "Alright, with no more questions, I'm just going to say one thing: if you want to bow out and are having second thoughts, please go right now and take the test later, our imposed age limit is 12 at minimum but, you're not under any obligation to take the Possible Match test until you're 16 or the Aptitude Test until you're 18, understood? So if you want to leave and take the test later, do it now. Walk away."

 _‘Obligation? Like the Draft?’_ Johan swallowed thickly. He’d never worried about things like conscription before now; he was registered as a CO, after all. _‘Somehow I highly doubt that something like “conscientious objection” would fly with these guys. Can’t really blame them, if the rest of the world is as fucked as this place is.’_

Johan tried to make his face look stoic and determined, if only to mask his fear and doubt, but he had a sinking feeling he just looked constipated. After a bit of waiting, a couple people decided to follow the uniformed man's words and left the place wordlessly.

Once they were out of earshot, the man continued his speech. "Ok, I'll assume the rest of you won't back down now. So with that in mind, let's begin. Please march to the designated area and wait for your turn."

Everyone began moving into the enclosure, directed by more of the staff members into a waiting area.

Johan made sure to keep pace with the rest of the applicants; in his mind, getting out of line in a situation like this was practically _guaranteed_ to end poorly.  
  


* * *

  
Time passed by in a flash. Johan wasn't too sure about what time he’d woken up to this waking nightmare, but now it was definitely close to dusk. As people filed in and out of the tents, the sun dipped lower on the horizon and the skies had started to darken. Some were moved to a truck, while the vast majority left the enclosure completely, their expressions varying between disappointment, anger, joy and resignation.

It was beginning to get a bit chilly, when a uniformed woman asked him to move to a tent. He followed her instructions and moved to a tent which had its flaps draped down, filtering only a little bit of warm, orange light.

Upon entering, the first thing he noticed was that the place was incredibly clean, almost sterile in comparison to the ruined city he'd found himself in. In the bottom left corner there was a clean stretcher bed, and to its side was a closed cabinet. On the right side of the tent there was a desk with a strange cube-like device hooked up to a bulky laptop. There were two seats next to it, one empty and another occupied by a man in the same military uniform, but colored plum. On top of that, he wore the massive manacle he had seen on the promotional video. His black hair was somewhat messy and arranged in a high ponytail, but a lock of hair was hanging in front of his face anyways. Behind a pair of thin-rimmed glasses, his olive eyes and expression were soft, almost sleepy and serene, with a small smile.

"Good evening, please take a seat," the man said genially while gesturing towards the empty chair.

Replying with a mumbled “Good evening, sir.” of his own, Johan did as he was instructed, lowering himself gingerly in the chair and praying that his nervousness wasn’t as obvious as he felt it was.

However, the man instantly noticed his tense posture and gave a small frown. "Hey, calm down. I know this is a big decision in your life and all, but relax. It's all going to be A-ok, got it?" the man reassured him and then began digging through his pockets, before taking out a small bar of some sort covered in silver wrapping and extending it in his direction. "Chocolate?"

Johan gave a thin smile and accepted the proffered candy, commenting, “You’re a saint.”

After unwrapping the manufactured ambrosia and swallowing a chunk, Johan exhaled, “Sorry about that; it’s been a _long_ day.”

"I can only imagine. Life in the Outer Ghetto is pretty rough, even with the Anti-Aragami wall keeping those beasties out," the man said with a nod. "In any case, we'll start the Possible Match Test whenever you're ready. It's a simple procedure; I take a small blood sample, load it up..." he lightly slapped the strange cube on the desk "Into this bad boy, and after a couple minutes, we should be getting your results. Pretty simple, unless you're not into needles."

Johan gave a wry chuckle. “Never had a problem with that before, doubt it’ll start now.” After taking another bite of the chocolate, he wrapped up the rest for later; as hungry as he was, if he failed this exam, who knew where he’d find his next meal (and wasn’t _that_ a terrifying thought). Best to make it last.

With a calming exhale, he nodded to the man. “No point in waiting around. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, sir.”

"Hey, you don't need to call me sir, makes me feel like I'm breaking 30," he said with a chuckle before moving his fingers to the laptop. "Alright, first things first, I'll be needing your data, so tell me your name, please."

“I’m Johan Lewis,” he replied, folding his hands in his lap.

"Johan Lewis? Pretty crazy to find a name like that all the way here in the Far East, but it's alright," the man noted while typing in the computer for a bit and stopping. A small frown made its way into his face and he began typing again.

After a bit, the man breathed in and let out a muttered "Oh boy," in English.

Johan’s eyebrow twitched, and his palms began to sweat as uncertainty grew in the pit of his stomach.

"Alright, not going to try and pry into it, but that _is_ your name, right?" the man asked with a worried expression. "Think you can spell it out for me?"

Johan nodded, then complied with a thin smile. “J-o-h-a-n L-e-w-i-s. That’s the name my mother gave me.”

The man typed the name once more and then shook his head with a sigh.

"Ok, we got a bit of a problem here," he said while scratching at the back of his head. "I'm checking the database and there's not a single Johan Lewis registered as an inhabitant of this sector of the Ghetto or any other."

Nervously clasping his hands together, Johan swallowed thickly, then bitterly replied, “Well, that’s just great. I was hoping that you Fenrir guys would have a record of how the he- how I got here, but if y’all don’t have it then I don’t know who _would_.” Johan exhaled. “A few hours ago I woke up in a busted up building not far from here with no memory of how I got there. Last thing I remember was going to sleep in my nice, safe room.”

Johan slumped over, took off his glasses with trembling fingers, and put his head in his hands, desperately scrabbling for any semblance of control over his emotions. “I didn’t know where else to go,” he mumbled quietly, his voice thick with emotion.

The man looked at him first in confusion, then with a saddened expression. He kept quiet for a while, considering his words carefully. After a while, he spoke.

"Johan, buddy," he spoke while looking at him. "It's not my place to ask uncomfortable questions so I won't. I don't know what sort of baggage you're carrying, if you even are, but..." he stopped for a bit to mull over what he'd say before biting on his lip. "All these things you'll have to set aside for a bit. If you're not registered, we've got a bigger problem on our hands, I'm going to help you out with it but we need to get it sorted out. ASAP. Alright? Take a minute if you need it."

Johan raised his head from his hands and nodded slowly, taking a deep breath, then another. After a minute or two, he’d managed to regain some semblance of control over his emotions, and put his glasses back on. “Okay. Okay. I...I think I’m good now.” With one final exhale, he asked, “What do you need me to do?”

"First, get to know the problem." The man with the plum uniform leaned back on his chair and breathed in. "The way I figure it, you've nowhere to stay that you think is safe, right? The Ghetto seems like a terrible place to stay in, right?"

Johan nodded. “It doesn’t seem safe, and I don’t actually have any necessities, like food or water.”

"Well, believe it or not, the Ghetto is mostly safe. It's not the best place to be at, I know, but at least it's protected by the Defense Unit and the Anti-Aragami Wall." The man said with a gesture. "As for food and water, that's supplied by Fenrir. The people living here are under our protection, after all."

He breathed in before moving forward. "The problem is that we can't house all the people in the world. Putting aside the matter of overcrowding, there's only so much food to go around. The ugly truth is that we've stopped taking in people. And, please keep calm as I say this: you're an extra in our population, you're here illegally."

Johan flinched, then gritted his teeth. He wanted to protest, to cry out that it _wasn’t his fault_ , but he didn’t think that the man in front of him was telling him this out of malice. “I...understand,” he bit out, then asked, “Is there anything I can do to... _correct_ this problem?”

"Yes, though it might get complicated depending on what _you_ want." The man brought his right hand to his chest, clenched in a fist before tapping it with the red manacle on his arm. "But I promise on my name, Cedric of the Henckel von Donnersmarck family, that you will be fine. I'll figure something out one way or another."

After blinking at the... _extravagant_ name, Johan forced a smile onto his face. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” The brunet then sobered, asking, “But ‘what _I_ want’? Could you elaborate?”

"Well…" The now named man scratched his chin. "See, there's two...no, make that three, options. First one is the one that will expedite the process and give you the best living arrangements, second is the backup if the first one can't be applied, both of these involve working for Fenrir, which is...well, 'not particularly liked' by everyone seems like an apt descriptor. If you don't actually want to work for Fenrir, then you'll have to take the third choice, which I'm still thinking of."

“Well,” Johan said, considering the man’s words, “I think I’d like to hear about both of the options that you _have_ thought of, if you don’t mind.” Tenting his hands before him and leaning forward, he continued, “Like...what I’d be expected to do, what kinds of requirements these jobs have, that sort of thing.”

Cedric nodded and breathed in. "Alright. So first option: take the test we're supposed to be running right now. If you're a Possible Match, then you'll be able to take the God Eater's Aptitude Test and join them. We're _always_ short on personnel, so if you become a God Eater, they won't sweat the little details and let you stay, just like that."

He looked at Johan with a serious expression and continued. "If you become a God Eater, you'll be expected to fight the Aragami." He raised a hand in front of him before Johan could reply. "I know. It seems scary, terrifying even. But new recruits go over to the First Unit, led by Captain Lindow Amamiya, whose missions have a whopping 90% survival rate for all those involved. We wouldn't be sending you into the meat grinder just to hear your screams. We care about our God Eaters and make damn well sure all of them get back home in one piece."

Johan nodded stiffly. “And the second? I’m not saying no to your first offer; I just want to know my options before I make a decision as big as this one.”

"Perfectly understandable," the bespectacled man smiled. "Like I said, this one is a backup if you fail the test, but we can try it if you want. It's not 100% sure to work, but maybe I can _try_ to pull a few strings and see if I can't get you some work at the Den. I don't know...bookkeeping, non-oracle tech mechanics, something. Anything."

Johan exhaled. “That...sounds more palatable, if I’m being perfectly honest, but…” He looked down at his clasped hands. “I’d like to take the test, to see if I have whatever it is you all are looking for.” Even as his shoulders shook slightly, he looked up. “Because if I _do_ have whatever this ‘Possible Match’ thing is, and I don’t at least _try_ to make a difference?” He gritted his teeth. “I don’t think I could live with myself.”

Cedric nodded but couldn't help chuckling. "They've been running 'The Call for God Eaters' on the FBS a lot lately, haven't they?" He shook his head. "Well, it's propaganda, but it's not an exaggeration when they say we _can_ make a difference."

In a voice barely above a whisper, Johan said, “I was raised to believe that to at least _try_ , to do _something_ , even if you fail, is better than to sit back and do nothing.”

"Words to live by, I say," the man said with a smile before getting up and heading towards the locked cabinets, taking out a few things and laying them on the table one by one. Some alcohol, a pair of cotton balls, a pair of square glass sliders and a small razor like the blade of an exacto knife. "Alright, the test: like I said before, it's a simple thing, I'm going to prick you and draw just a _little_ bit of blood, which I'll put into the machine in the desk. While the results come in, I could answer any questions you have about God Eaters. An insider can give the best info, after all."

Johan nodded, swallowed thickly, and offered his arm wordlessly, wrist up. Cedric grabbed one of the cotton balls and poured some alcohol onto it, before rubbing it into his thumb to disinfect the area. Leaving it in the desk before grabbing the razor and leading the finger to one of the slides. "I'm going to prick you now, ok?"

“Sure,” Johan replied, trying to relax his arm. Seeing he was given approval, the man drove the metal implement into his thumb, sending a spike of pain through him. He’d donated blood dozens of times before, though, so all the response he gave to the pain was a slight tightening of the jaw. The man pressed on the sides of his thumb a bit to let the red liquid out and let a sample drop on one of the slides. He placed the second one on top of it and slid it into some part of the machine he couldn't see, most likely a slot, with a click.

"Alright, just gonna boot this up and..." Cedric tapped a single key and looked back at him. "Done, just need to get the results. If you've got any questions, I'll be happy to answer them." He then grabbed the other ball and poured a bit of alcohol into it before handing it to Johan so he could clean up his thumb.

Johan cleared his throat. “Well, the first thing that I’d like to know is _what even the hell are the Aragami!?”_ His voice started even, but became a bit more shrill as he finished his question. He took a breath, then asked in a calmer voice. “I mean, the video got the basics across: they’re world ending monsters. But what _are_ they? Where did they come from?”

"Johan, buddy. Chill," Cedric said while raising a hand to shoulder height. "Keep your cool. Take deep breaths if you need to."

Johan sighed. “Sorry. It’s just a lot to take in. Just...I’d rather know what I’m dealing with. What _humanity_ is dealing with. Maybe that’ll make me less...well, _this._ I’ve always preferred unpleasant truths to comforting ignorance.”

"I'd argue against that, but you're right." Cedric breathed in and thought about his words carefully. "An Aragami is… The Aragami are...really _weird_ creatures. The simplest explanation I can provide is that they are a cluster of what is known as Oracle Cells, these being single-cell organisms which follow a single instinct: to devour and prey on others. An Aragami is made up of hundreds of thousands of Oracle Cells, with groups performing functions according to the part it's supposed to be, such as fangs, eyes, limbs, etcetera."

Johan blinked. “I’m guessing that Oracle Cells are special in some way?”

"Well, look at it this way:" Cedric pointed at his head. "We humans have a brain, a skeleton and a ton of different little organs. We are made up of cells which make up tissues, which then make organs and so on and so forth. With Aragami, that's not the case. There's no tissue or organs aside from a central part which is the ' _core'_ of the Aragami. On top of that, they're incredibly resilient. If you were to use conventional weapons on them, the Oracle Cells would be virtually undamaged."

Johan looked blankly at Cedric, then rubbed his chin in thought. “Considering humanity is still here, I’m guessing the ‘God Eaters’ have some _un_ conventional weaponry, then.” He didn’t phrase it as a question, but it was pretty clear Johan wanted some assurance.

"That's right! We've got the God Arcs," the man said proudly. "See, if you hurt an Aragami with a normal weapon, the Oracle Cells would bind together as if you hadn't done a thing to them. Imagine it like slicing a piece of paper with a knife and the paper just fixing itself right before your eyes. God Arcs are different, though. Following my allegory, the paper would _stay cut,_ as God intended."

Letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, Johan then said, “Okay. I guess that just leaves me with one more question. What makes a ‘God Arc’ special that normal weapons lack? Are they made of some super-special material or something?”

"That's kind of complicated to explain." Cedric said with a grimace. "It'd mean getting into Bias, the Artificial CNS', and _a ton_ of stuff that's really not easy to explain in a single sitting. It's all available in Fenrir's NORN database though, so you could check it out if...no, when you pass the Aptitude Test."

Johan nodded. “In that case, nothing else comes to mind...well, one other thing. I assume Fenrir offers _some_ form of combat training? Because I do _not_ know how to fight _people_ , much less _Aragami_ . Might be a dumb question, but it’s _kinda_ important.”

"No problem, I get where you're coming from," he answered with a wave of his hand. "I used to be a common...well, big air quotes on 'common', nobleman. I didn't know a damned thing and now I'm able to go and kick some tail." He gave a fond chuckle. "Does wonders for your self esteem too. Point is: yes, you'll get trained on how to handle your God Arc, depending on which type it is, and your first live missions will be under Cap'n Lindow, so you don't need to worry about that."

Johan let out a sigh. “That’s a relief, at least.”

A couple seconds after, an electronic chime came from the laptop on the desk. Cedric took a look at the screen with a smile and gave a sharp laugh.

"Hah! Now that's a real surprise!" The man grinned at Johan. "Well, you passed! With honors even, I'd say."

Johan arched an eyebrow. “And what does _that_ mean?” He asked with a hint of wariness to his voice.

"See, God-Arcs came in two types, Long-Distance and Close-Combat. When you get one, you're stuck with it for the rest of your life, barring special circumstances," the man explained while propping up his glasses. "But recently, a special model they've been calling a New-Type God Arc has begun production. These can switch between long-distance and close-combat at the push of a button, and it seems like you're eligible to try that one out yourself."

Johan blinked. “Well, I know nothing about using weapons, aside from ‘pointy end in enemy’, but I’ve always liked versatility.”

"Heh, I'm almost kind of jealous of you," he openly gushed. "I'm a Medic stuck with a Close-Combat weapon, and sure, it's the _coolest thing ever_ but I wanted a gun too, you know?"

Cedric got up and stretched as much as he could, his bones giving a loud crack, before taking a look at a corner of the screen on the laptop. "Anyways, we're almost going to end the testing for the day. You've got two options. Either you come with us and we leave for the Den and get you to your Aptitude Test tomorrow, or you can come some other day if you have unfinished business. We'll be here all week, after all."

Johan shook his head. “No, I don’t think waiting around will do me any favors. Best to strike while the iron is hot, as the saying goes.”

"Ain't that right?" he said with a smile before taking a carton of cigarettes out of his pocket. "Normally, I'd just tell you to go to the truck at the back of the camp, but due to your circumstances, I'll have to put in a word first. I could also use a smoke right now – I'd offer one but I think you're a bit on the younger side for that."

Johan shook his head. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I try to keep away from the stuff. Killed my grandma.”

"Well..." Cedric said while turning the box on his hand before taking one out and pocketing it. "There _is_ a good reason they call them cancer sticks, I guess."

The man stepped to the entrance of the tent. "You ready?"

Johan stood, then said with a tired smile, “I guess I’d better be, huh?”

Now that they both stood side to side, he could get a feel for the man's height. He didn't look particularly tall, but he was a bit bigger than him.

As he walked towards the the tent exit beside Cedric, Johan sighed quietly, something he’d been doing quite a lot today. He was kinda surprised; a _whole bunch_ of shit had been dumped in his lap today, but rather than being intrigued, panicked, or overwhelmed, he was just fucking _exhausted_. The thing he wanted most right now was a hot meal, followed by a bed not made of rubble and debris to collapse into.

Hopefully, he’d get that wish; after all, he’d just signed up to fight monsters straight out of a nightmare.

…

Ah, _there_ was the panic.

As he beat down his panic with a mixture of deep breathing and muscle tension, he followed in Cedric’s wake out into the chill night air. Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day.


	2. Den. Despair. Dinner.

Cedric led Johan to a grey vehicle with the Fenrir Logo stamped on its side; the general shape of it reminded him of an ice-cream truck. To the rear were five people, all of them in uniforms of different colors. One of them was wearing the same red manacle as the bespectacled man.

Cedric told Johan to wait for a moment while he talked with them. The brunet obeyed, content to watch as the man chatted with the other people, just outside his hearing. Some of them gave the medic the stink-eye after he said something, at which point he'd flinched and scratched the back of his head. The other person with the armlet said something else, which made him grimace and let out an exaggerated sigh.

After Johan had watched the back and forth between them for a while, Cedric called him over.

"Hey, so..." The bespectacled man gave Johan a sidelong glance once he'd approached. "I was right, they're not going to sweat the details about your lack of background as long as you pass the Aptitude Test."

A little bit of tension left Johan’s shoulders as he nodded to Cedric. “Don’t suppose you can tell me anything about _that,_ can you? Like, what _is_ the Aptitude Test, anyways?”

"Sorry, no can do." He replied with a sigh. "It's not exactly _forbidden_ to talk about it, but it's _strongly discouraged._ I'd probably get into trouble if I blab and I already got a bit of flak for this."

Johan nodded. “I kinda figured that’d be the case. Had to ask, though.” He looked past Cedric towards the five people the kindly man had been talking to. “So...what now?”

"Now? We head over to the Den, catch dinner and we handle the matter of paperwork." he said with a grimace at the last one. "They won't sweat the details, but _I_ have to make your profile and register you at our database. Fun times."

 _‘Even in the wake of the apocalypse, paperwork remains.’_ Johan offered a small smile to Cedric. “I appreciate you doing that.”

"No problem, though I would seriously like it if someone else did it for me." He chuckled. "Actually, it might help if I ask some questions right now, before we get moving."

“Of course,” Johan replied immediately. All that standing around had been ample time for him to start to get antsy again; he’d welcome any distraction, and if he could make Cedric’s task easier in the process, all the better. “Ask away.”

"Alright so..." The man scratched at his chin as he mulled it over. "Uh...age? Yeah, let's start there."

“Twenty-four.”

"Nah, you're pulling my leg." Cedric said with a chuckle. "You look around...give or take a few months...eighteen? Nineteen? Twenty tops."

Johan cocked his head in confusion. “Unless there’s something wrong with my head, and I hope there’s not, I’m pretty sure I’m twenty-four. I _have_ been told I have a young face, though, so that might be it.”

"Well, if you think you hit your head we could go back to the tent to check under a better light, though if it's something else, I wouldn't be able to tell." Cedric looked puzzled at his answer. "Actually, yeah, I think we should go do th—"

"Oi, Donnersmarck! Quit screwing around!" One of the uniformed men said as he approached them. "We'll be leaving right now, so get to Car Three unless you want to be left behind by the convoy."

"Yeah, yeah! I hear you!" he shot back before turning to face Johan. "I think we should cut this short for now and continue when we're at the Den, yeah?"

The brunet nodded. “Works for me. Lead the way.”

"You’ll be on this truck; I have to go on a different vehicle. This one is only carrying Possible Matches like you." The man who interrupted them cleared his throat pointedly, urging Cedric on "So, yeah. I have to go. Try asking for a mirror if you want to take a look at your head, though you won't be able to be thorough without the help of someone who knows what they're doing." The other man began to approach Cedric with a grimace, at which point he began walking away. "Okay, jeez! I'll see you later, Johan!"

“Bye, Cedric,” Johan replied, raising a hand to offer a tired wave. As the dark-haired man walked away, the weary brunet looked at the truck Cedric had indicated. A bored-looking, unremarkable woman in a Fenrir uniform stood beside the truck, beckoning to him in a lazy fashion that seemed to take all of her energy.

Johan approached, then asked, “This is the truck for Possible Matches, right?”

"Yes," the woman said curtly, her tone implying she’d rather be doing _anything_ else. "Hop in."

Johan obeyed swiftly, giving her a perfunctory nod as he climbed aboard. As he entered, he noticed that he wasn’t alone on the vehicle. Three other people were aboard with him; two of them male, one female.

The thing that immediately stuck out to him the most, though...all three of them were dressed in clothes that wouldn’t have been out of place in Blazblue or Final Fantasy. Excessive numbers of buckles, zippers, and illogically held together fabric that seemed to forgo the laws of gravity for... _fashion_ ? Johan abruptly realized he’d been just standing there and _staring_ , and flushed. None of them seemed to pay any mind to him, engrossed in their own thoughts.

Johan, thankful that his faux pas hadn’t been noticed, proceeded further into the truck and took a seat. He leaned forward in his seat, resting his chin on his fist as he settled in for a long wait. It didn't take much time for him to hear the woman outside call out to them with a short "We're leaving!" before shutting the doors. Thankfully, they were not left in the dark, as a pair of lights on the ceiling turned on. A few seconds later, he could feel the truck vibrate as the engine roared to life.

The brunet remained silent, nerves mixing with his own introverted nature to create a bulwark of discomfort that precluded any thought of interacting with the other three passengers. No, he’d wait out the ride, Johan decided. With any luck, he’d be able to center himself and calm down a bit before they reached this ‘Den’ place.

* * *

Johan wasn't too sure of how much time had passed since he'd gotten into the truck, but by the time he had gotten off, it was already night. He and the others had disembarked in an enclosed parking lot, in front of a pair of blast doors. They were quickly surrounded by the uniformed men and women he'd seen back at the camp, who all stood at attention. Among them, he couldn't spot Cedric, or anyone else with the red manacle.

Immediately after, the doors slid sideways, revealing another pair which moved up and down. From inside, three men stepped out. Cedric was one of them standing at the right, though his expression was slightly harder, the contrast to the one he’d worn around Johan a bit jarring.

On the left was a man with a youthful face and short, dark hair. In contrast to the people Johan had shared transportation with, this one was dressed sensibly. Indeed, the only things about his outfit that were at all striking were the crimson coat he was wearing and the pouches dangling from either side of his belt.

The man in the middle was dressed a bit more unusually, but at least his garb seemed to have some practical function. A brown longcoat was draped over the man’s powerful frame. Four large pockets covered the front of the garment, presumably to be filled with useful objects.

The man himself looked a fair bit older than his associate, though it was entirely possible that the red-clad man was suffering from the same sort of “affliction” as Johan himself. Adding to his mature look was the wing-shaped fringe of hair that completely obscured the man’s right eye.

All in all, the three cut an imposing figure, even Cedric. Looking at the bespectacled man now, Johan would have been hard-pressed to believe how kind a person he was, had he not experienced it for himself.

"Alright, good evening lady and gents. Welcome to the Far East Branch's Headquarters, affectionately called by us God Eaters 'The Den',” the man in the middle said with a relaxed voice. "I'm the Captain of the First Unit, Lindow Amamiya. To my sides are Tatsumi O'Mori, Captain of the Second Unit, and Officer Candidate of the Third Unit, Cedric Henckel..."

He looked as though he was about to say something else, stumbling for a bit before seemingly giving up and continuing.

"I'm sure you're all jumpy because of the Aptitude Test, and that's alright," he said while putting a hand on his hip and extending the other. "Believe me, I know the feeling. But it's alright; you'll have the whole night to sleep off your worries and a hot meal in your stomach before it."

As though in response Lindow’s words, Johan’s stomach took that opportunity to grumble loudly. His hand rose to cover his face as his cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

"And one in a little bit, now that I think about it," Lindow responded with a chuckle before lowering his extended hand. "Your schedule is pretty nice right now. You'll get your measurements taken so we can make a couple uniforms for you, then you'll go pick up some brunch from the mess hall. After that, you’ll head to your rooms. Try to get some sleep while you can; you'll want to be as well rested as possible for the aptitude test. At ten-hundred hours, you'll be given your uniforms, and by eleven-hundred hours, you'll be expected to be dressed and ready to take the Aptitude Test. The rest will be decided based on the results, got it?"

The other three Possible Matches nodded, and Johan followed suit.

"Alright, good. Let's get moving then, folks!" the man said while he turned away and walked into the building. Cedric and Tatsumi turned to look at him with an expression of mixed annoyance and resignation.

"Would it kill him to be a little more thorough? You'd think we didn’t have an image to maintain," the man with the red jacket grumbled.

"That's just Lindow for you," Cedric replied before turning back at the newcomers. "Alright, you heard him, time's a-wasting. Let's move."

At his word, everyone began to head inside. Behind him, Johan heard the heavy shutting and locking of the blast doors. He suppressed a shudder at the cold finality of the noise.

* * *

The trip around 'The Den' was fairly short, but as the group made their way through the building Johan had managed to appraise it fairly well. Unlike the Outer Ghetto he'd found himself in, the place was solidly built. Every wall they'd passed at first was reinforced with metal plates, and there was not a single piece of debris or dust in sight.

Johan supposed it was only to be expected. If these “God Eaters” were even _half_ as integral to fighting off the Aragami as the propaganda video had seemed to suggest, it made sense to keep their facilities in good order. Not living in a dirty hovel also probably helped morale, now that he thought about it.

They didn't run across many people, but the few that they did meet gave a nod of acknowledgement before moving on.

When the time came to take everyone's measurements, no one complained, though one of the guys was slightly embarrassed for being the shortest of them all. They didn't say the numbers, but it was clear he was the shortest by a semi-considerable margin. Immediately after, they were asked about their color of preference and were given seven choices. He could see Cedric quietly telling him to pick Plum from the other side of the room, but he chose Black.

It was one of the only colors he didn’t look terrible in, so it only made sense. The fact that he was a consummate edgelord and the color made him feel more at home had _nothing_ to do with his choice.

After that, they went on to get their meals. This proceeded to leave him pleasantly surprised, as he'd expected to be given a far less generous portion of food in a post-apocalypse world. He'd been given a tray of chicken broth with rice and shredded poultry, a glass of water and a corn on the cob.

The group was led to a corridor with a green carpet lined with copper-colored metal doors. Above each one was a red light and to the side there was a cardkey slider.

"This here is the Rookies' Section. As you can imagine, this is where recruits and low ranking God Eaters live," Cedric explained. "Inside the room is a bed, a lounge, a small kitchen—you'll get why you have one later, trust me—a terminal to access the Norn Database, and a bathroom fully stocked with everything you'll need."

He dug around his pocket and pulled out a card with a mugshot of him, some other things Johan couldn't read at that distance, and half of the Fenrir logo peeking out at the left.

"We'll be giving you an ID Card as soon as you complete the Aptitude Test," he continued. "It'll be useful for a lot of things, but the most important is access to your room. Simply slide it like so..."

He passed the card through the reader and upon doing so, the light above turned green.

"And the door will be unlocked. After that, press the button right next to it to open it." He did so and the door slid upwards. "The sensors at the side will automatically shut the door after about 5 seconds, but you can manually close it with the slider inside of the room. If you want to lock your door, use your card inside the room; that'll turn the light outside yellow, and let people know that you're inside but want them to knock. If you're _really_ having an off day and don't want to deal with anyone, punch in a code located at the back of the card and that'll turn the light red, so people will know you're either not in the room or not taking visitors."

He passed the card on the scanner once more, shutting the door and locking it.

"Pass the cardkey on the scanner outside to lock the door," he said before stopping for a moment. "Actually, lemme dial back a bit. That thing about locking the door with the red light from the inside? That's seen as poor manners if you do it often, so try to do it only when you really need it."

Cedric scratched the back of his head and let out a yawn.

"And well...that's pretty much it. We'll be giving you your cards after you complete your aptitude tests. For now, it's off to dinner and bed," he continued with a shrug. "Any questions?"

Before anyone else, the only girl of the group lifted her hand and spoke out loud "Uh, how are we going to leave the room if we don't get our cards now?"

"Well, we'll pick you up when it's time," the man in the plum uniform answered "No worries."

"Wait, s-so like...we're gonna be locked in our rooms," one of the guys stuttered.

Cedric couldn't help but sigh. "Put bluntly? Yes. Not without good reason though. Setting aside security concerns, it's also for your own safety. It wouldn't do if you just wandered around the base and stumbled upon one of the production areas. Before you ask, no, we don't think you're stupid enough to stick your hands in heavy duty machinery like curious children, but this sort of thing _has happened_ in the past, so it's official protocol now."

Johan nodded without comment, then looking to Cedric expectantly. He wasn’t sure if he’d be expected to help with the paperwork before he got a chance to eat, but he figured the man would let him know soon enough.

The man returned the look with a nod before addressing the Possible Matches once more. "Anything else?"

Everyone just shuffled in place awkwardly, then shook their heads one by one.

"Ok then." He slid his card and unlocked the door in front of him, gesturing to the inside of the room. "We'll be seeing you tomorrow; try to get as much rest as you can, alright?"

At this, one of the guys just let out a helpless sigh and went into the room. After a muttered "g'night" from him and Cedric, the man locked the door.

From there they kept moving from door to door, dropping everyone off with their trays full of warm food. None of them showed any resistance, only resignation at the way they'd be held.

Once only Johan was left, the Officer Candidate turned to the rest of the entourage. "I'll have to fill in Johan's paperwork here, so you think you could get the Terminal in this room unlocked?"

"Sure, just make sure you don't slack off, Donnersmark," one of the uniformed men said harshly. If Cedric thought anything of that comment, he didn't show it.

"Oh, so that was the last name..." Lindow scratched at his chin while muttering, getting a reaction out of the man, who instantly slapped his palm against his face, almost hitting his chin with the gigantic manacle.

After some quick goodbyes, the two stepped into the room. While the Fenrir employee locked the door, Johan gave his surroundings a quick look.

It was spacious, probably twice the size of his bedroom back... _before_. To his left were a couple of leather couches situated around a small wooden table, and to his right was a twin-sized bed. Over near the couches was a small kitchenette area, complete with a sink, mini-fridge, microwave, and stove.

Beside the bed was...a strange machine that he didn’t even begin to know how to identify. To the right of where he’d entered was a closed door with the kanji for “restroom” on it. To the left, there was another closed door, this one unlabeled. Finally, on the wall opposite the door he’d entered from, there was a large, black screen ringed with frames, evoking the image of a window in Johan’s mind.

Cedric began to turn around but stopped as he came to face the unlabeled door. "Oh crap, I forgot to mention the closet."

Johan looked at Cedric and shrugged. “If the other recruits have even two brain cells to rub together, I’m sure they’ll figure it out. How complicated can a closet be?”

The man rose a finger in response with his mouth opened, slowly lowering it as time passed.

"Well, point," he replied. "Wouldn't put it in such a mean-spirited way, but true."

He stretched out his arms out and went to plop down on the couch. "Anyway, it'll take a bit for the terminal to get unlocked, so why don't you start eating?"

Johan nodded, taking his tray over to the table, sitting down, and tucking into his meal. With how hungry he was, he barely took time to taste his food, though he noticed that the soup tasted rather artificial, and the corn tasted... _off_ . He couldn’t put his finger on it, but the corn wasn’t _right_.

Remembering he still had half of a chocolate bar in his pocket, he took it out, balefully noting how melted it was. _‘Oh well. Melted chocolate is still chocolate.’_ His hands got more than a bit messy, but he managed to get most of the mushy treat _into_ his mouth rather than _on_ it.

He stacked the silverware and bowl on the tray, walked over to the sink, and washed his hands thoroughly. Once he got all the chocolate stains off his hands, he walked over to Cedric, who was seated on the other couch.

“Terminal ready yet?” Johan asked, plopping back down in his seat.

"Nope. We'd both know if it was, trust me," he assured him. "Though we might as well start asking questions, yeah?"

“Sure. Ask away,” Johan replied, kicking a foot up to rest it on his knee and folding his hands in his lap.

"Alright so. Full disclosure. The answers need to be as truthful as possible," Cedric noted. "So for real: age and date of birth?"

Johan made a face, then sighed. “You really don’t believe me when I say that I’m twenty-four, do you?”

The man simply stared at him with a completely serious expression. "You're serious about this. Absolutely. One-hundred-percent serious."

Johan looked Cedric directly in the eyes and nodded. “Before I woke up in that abandoned building, I remember going to sleep on August 17th, twenty days after my twenty-fourth birthday.”

The medic kept looking straight at his face, his expression changing to something he couldn't really decipher the meaning of; a sombre, almost melancholic face. Wordlessly, he got on his feet and walked towards the door, entering the bathroom and leaving the door open.

Johan swallowed, Cedric’s reaction to his words causing a heavy, almost lead-like lump of dread to drop into the pit of his stomach. Was there something bad associated with his age? Was he going to be kicked out?

_Was he going to be kill—_

Johan clapped his hands against his cheeks, shaking his head vigorously. He _could not_ panic, not now. He had to stay calm and _not_ jump to conclusions.

This was easier said than done, unfortunately. Johan clasped his hands together in a white-knuckled grip and leaned forward, exhaling sharply. He did his best to take deep, even breaths, and, while it didn’t make him as calm as he’d have liked, he managed to stop the shaking that had started back up without his noticing.

Soon enough, he saw Cedric come out of the bathroom, holding a rectangular mirror. He slowly walked towards Johan, his expression remaining the same as it had before. The man slowly lifted the reflective object up to his face, showing his reflection staring right back at him.

“What.” For the life of him, Johan couldn’t form a more complex, coherent response than that. After all, it’s not every day you look in the mirror and a younger face stares back at you. Johan might have had a youthful face, but his reflection now wasn’t just youthful. It was actually _younger_ . Not even a hint of stubble (not that he grew much facial hair to begin with, but still), and his cheekbones were even softer than he remembered. _“What,”_ he repeated incredulously, touching his face, confusion roiling in his veins.

The man holding the mirror kept staring at him with the same sorrowful expression. "Johan. When were you born? Where did you live?"

“I remember living in the United States,” Johan replied dully, still staring in the mirror. “I was born in 1994.”

Cedric lowered the mirror slowly. He placed it down on the table before taking a seat once more. He sat leaning forward with his face down, clearly thinking long and hard on his folloween words. The man couldn't help but let out a breath after some time.

He looked straight into his eyes once more.

"The Aragami showed up in the 2050s," he declared grimly. "America was lost completely to them a long while ago. The entire continent."

It was a dull pain, Johan thought distantly, like he was feeling somebody else’s stab wound. He’d never been a patriotic person, but...the US had been his home, flaws and all. To hear that it was just _lost_ , that the entirety of the _continent_ was overrun? That hurt more than he’d have thought, but not in the traditional sense. It...was like something had reached down and scooped out the inside of his soul. He felt hollow, _cold._

All of a sudden, he realized he hadn’t been breathing, and inhaled. It was a wet, choking sound. His cheeks felt wet.

Johan felt alone.

A grimace rose to Cedric's face. An angry scowl that Johan somehow knew wasn't directed at him. After that pause, he continued.

"It's been...a long time since then," he said mournfully. "The year is 2071. I'm sorry to say this, but if you're telling the truth...then everyone you once knew is most likely dead, even if they managed to escape from the initial onslaught."

Johan, still in shock, nodded slowly, the words not really registering over the revelation that his entire home continent had been destroyed and overrun with monsters. He took a shaky breath, then another.

He looked up at Cedric, tears streaking down his face, staining his glasses and shirt. “What...do I do?” he asked, voice cracking with immeasurable grief and helplessness.

The man did not answer immediately. He simply breathed for a while, opening his mouth as if to say something but stopping at the last moment. After a bit of floundering in that way, he finally spoke up.

"I don't have the right to give you a concrete answer. I can only tell you this much." The man stretched out the hand with the armlet. "A lot of people here, a lot of us God Eaters, we've...they've also lost everything. Almost in the blink of an eye, suddenly and without warning. Some of them decide to join because they want to let out their anger on the creatures that wronged them. Some of them come because they want to start from scratch, even if it hurts. Some of them don't know what to make of themselves afterwards, so they join hoping they'll find answers, a purpose, a reason to go on."

He shook his head. "Do they all get what they're looking for? Sometimes. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. At this point, you really can't back down, and you've nothing to lose...as horrible as that is. The only thing I can say is this:"

"You'll have to decide what you have to do on your own. Find the answer to that question, then firmly grasp it, even if it takes forever to find it in the first place."

Johan stared at Cedric for a long moment, really considering what the man had said. After a few more moments, he looked away, taking off his glasses and dashing the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. His voice hoarse, he replied, “I don’t know if I can do it, Cedric. But I _will_ try.”

"That much takes a lot of courage, Johan." The medic nodded at him, a small smile still completely steeped in melancholy graced his face. "No matter what happens, remember: we God Eaters are all in this together, some just doing the very same as you. You're not alone here. Never will be."

Johan exhaled, then coughed wetly. “Thank you, Cedric,” he said quietly. “That...that means a lot.”

A little afterwards, the Terminal on the other side of the room blared to life with a loud sound. After a short period of silence, Cedric went towards the strange contraption and the two of them began to fill in his paperwork. The two of them had to blatantly lie about certain facts, quite unsurprisingly, but it was not a terribly long process as they agreed on the specifics and quickly worked through the various blanks he had to fill. Once they were done, the man bid him farewell and wished the best for him.

Privately, Johan wasn’t sure he was going to be good enough, that he wouldn’t break. How could he be? Everything and everyone he’d ever cared for in the slightest was just _gone_ . Even now, that didn’t feel _real_ to him, but with every passing second, he could feel the helplessness welling up inside him. The only reason he hadn’t broken down completely was because Cedric had been there for him. Kind, quietly strong Cedric.

He hoped that the other man was right, that he’d be able to rely on the other people in Fenrir...and maybe, one day, be relied on in turn. But for now…

He just wanted to cry away the pain. And so he did.

It wasn’t very effective.


	3. The Birth of a Rebel

Johan jerked awake to the sound of an electronic chime as a doorbell of some sort rang loudly through the entire room.

Blinking the mucus from his eyes, he looked around in confusion, before remembering everything that had happened in the past day. Scrubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, he called out, “Coming,” his voice cracking with both sleep and the scratchiness that came of violent sobbing.

He stumbled to the door, and after staring blankly at it for a while, he remembered he didn’t actually have a way to open it. As if in answer to that thought, the door slid open, revealing a uniformed man he didn't recognize standing at attention in front of him but with a fairly relaxed air to him. In his arms, he carried several folded up sets of black clothes.

"Johan Lewis, correct?" the man asked dryly. "Here are your uniforms."

The man extended the pile of military garb out to him.

Johan reached out to accept them, offering a quiet “Thank you, sir,” as he did so. “I assume I’ll be expected to wear these for the Aptitude Test?” he asked, his voice weary.

"Yes. You have an entire hour to prepare yourself for the aptitude test," he answered. "As for your old clothes, I'm afraid you will be banned from using them on the field unless they receive a special treatment just as your uniforms have. You will have to consult your advisor or the operators if you wish to subject them to said treatment."

Though mild curiosity had sparked in his mind about this ‘treatment’, he simply nodded and replied, “Understood.” After exhaling slightly, he looked the man in the eye, and said, “I suppose I should get as ready as I can, if you have nothing else for me, sir.”

"No, that will be all," the man said and gave a small bow, which Johan did his best to mimic (probably failing horribly). "Best of luck for the Aptitude Test."

Having said his piece and delivered the uniforms, he left the room and locked the door, leaving Johan alone once more.

He looked dully at the pile of clothing in his arms for a moment, then set it down on the bed. After a brief detour to the bathroom to complete his morning ablutions, he returned to the main room and spread out the uniform, giving it a considering look.

...He wouldn’t lie. He liked the way it looked. It was the same in form as Cedric’s, but everything save for the crisp white undershirt was darker.

Looking at all the different parts of the uniform, he decided to get dressed. He struggled briefly with the leg belts, but eventually managed to get them on. After everything seemed to be in place, he returned to the bathroom and, after considering his reflection with weary eyes, ran a comb through the unkempt, tangled thicket that masqueraded as his hair.

As expected, he wasn’t able to tame it much, but at least he managed to calm it from “Napoleon Dynamite lookalike” to something halfway reasonable.

He briefly considered rummaging through the kitchen for something to eat, but with how nervous he was he just _knew_ he’d end up spilling something all over his uniform, so he thought better of it. Instead, he decided to take this bit of time to meditate; hopefully he’d be able to center himself a bit.

After a few minutes of failure, he finally managed to get a decent rhythm of breathing, and calmed down a little. He continued this, focusing on nothing more than inhaling and exhaling, until the (honestly rather obnoxious) buzzer at his door sounded once more.

He rose, brushed off his pants, and walked over to the door. “Here,” he said through the metal barrier, scratching the back of his head absently.

When the door slid open, he caught sight of Cedric who had a small smile on his face as he held the cardkey on his hand.

"Hey, Johan!" the bespectacled man called out. "Ready for the test? We'll catch some brunch just before, but I just wanted to know how you felt."

Johan exhaled. “I...feel a _bit_ better. I think sleeping in an actual bed probably helped, and having access to a shower, at that. As for the test?” He spread his hands. “Well, I’m ready as I’ll ever be, I think.” His stomach growled, and he amended with a weak, wry smile, “Well, mentally. Physically, I’m sure some food would help.”

"It always does, doesn't it?" Cedric chuckled. "Alright, let's go."

* * *

The two headed towards the mess hall, where they saw many different people gathered around. Some held the same armlet as Cedric, while others did not. As the two of them waited in line for their turn to be served, the medic told Johan that they were lucky not to be there during rush hour, as it could get pretty wild.

Johan would have replied, but his stomach took that opportunity to weigh in with a loud grumble. He flushed slightly, then muttered, “Yeah, I’m glad there’s not much of a wait.”

Johan was served an incredibly generous breakfast. Scrambled eggs, a sandwich and cereal with milk. The size of the servings was nothing short of amazing and would clearly fill up his stomach with ease. As Cedric received his meal and the two of them made their way to a table, Johan couldn't help but notice his own portion was bigger than that of most of the people there.

After they took their seats, he quietly asked Cedric _why_ that was the case. The medic made a rather... _complicated_ expression at the question and simply replied that he'd need a full stomach for the Aptitude Test.

Johan wasn’t sure what to make of that, but knew that he’d just have to let it lie for now. There was nothing to do now but eat, and so eat he did.

When the two were done, Cedric took him to a long, metallic corridor. At the end he could see a red blast door, and a ways before that one there were two others on opposite sides of the hall. They approached one of the latter, which opened as they neared it, revealing a small lobby with two rows of benches. The bespectacled man dropped him off in that room and told him that he'd have to wait for his turn for the Test, as they'd be called one by one via intercom. Once done with his explanation, he wished Johan well and left.

Johan took his seat with nary a word, glancing at the other three applicants to gauge how they were feeling. The young woman seemed rather calm, all things considered, while one of the young men had an air of cockiness about him. The other man, the one who had asked if they were being locked in...he seemed to be on the verge of panicking.

Johan briefly considered going over to the man and offering him a sympathetic ear, but considering how much effort it was taking him to control his _own_ nerves? They’d probably end up becoming a feedback loop of neurotic panic, and that wouldn’t end well for anyone. No, best to just keep quiet and wait for his turn.

It didn't take more than five minutes before he heard his name being called out.

"Huh, so it's not in order of arrival." The cocky-looking Possible Match snorted. "Good luck, second," he sent Johan’s way, then more quietly he muttered, "I wonder if they're saving the best for last..."

If he’d been in a better mindset, Johan might have responded to him with snark. As it was, he only nodded and walked over to the blast doors, which opened while he was approaching them. Swallowing thickly, he passed through the doors. Within was a _massive_ , round room. The walls were covered in large, uniform holes with no purpose Johan could discern, as well as smaller bullet holes, scratches, scorches, and various other kinds of damage.

Looking up, Johan saw a large, mostly opaque window, through which he could just make out three silhouettes, though he couldn’t make out any details beyond that they were there and humanoid.

He saw one of them step forward, inching closer to the window before a male voice rang out through the room.

"Terribly sorry to have kept you waiting," the presumed speaker raised a hand to his side. "Allow me to welcome you to humanity's final fortress; the stalwart bastion that is Fenrir."

Lowering his hand, the figure paced around the observation room. "In this chamber, we shall test your compatibility to join the Anti-Aragami Punitive Force: the God Eaters."

The man stopped and turned to face into the chamber once more. "I assure you there is nothing at all to fear. When you're ready, please place the wrist of your dominant hand on the device at the center of the room."

Johan blinked, then saw the device that the man had referred to. He hadn’t even noticed the thing, what with all the bullet holes. The bespectacled brunet nodded to himself, then walked forward, approaching the device.

It looked like an overcomplicated, mechanized version of medieval stocks for one hand. As he approached, he saw that a massive blade, not unlike the one that had been wielded in the propaganda video, was sitting on the device. The hilt of the weapon was positioned where his wrist would be placed, and just above the grip was an...odd mass of _black sinew?_ Johan blinked. That was strange, to put it lightly. There was also a yellowish crystal protruding from the fleshy mass, but that was of less concern than the fact that the weapon appeared to have _biological components_.

Johan sighed, then finished examining the weapon. The blade itself was a dull brownish metal, and where it met the grip there were several metal plates separating it from the weird lump that Johan was pointedly _not_ thinking about. He also noticed what appeared to be a large revolver chamber and small _cannon_ attached to the blade around the same area as the plates. Bizarrely, the cannon was distinctly smaller than the chamber.

Acutely aware of how much time he’d spent looking at the odd piece of weaponry that could only be a God Arc, Johan steeled himself and put his right wrist into the device’s slot, wrapping his hand around the blade’s handle as he did so.

At first, nothing happened. All he could hear was an uncomfortable silence which seemed to drag on for eternity. The people on the observation room above did not speak a word either.

Just when it seemed that nothing would happen, the top half of the machine slammed down with a loud crashing sound. In spite of expecting something like that, Johan flinched all the same. That response soon escalated as he felt a sharp pain across his trapped wrist, almost as if a power saw was digging into his limb.

Johan gritted his teeth so hard that he thought they’d crack, letting out a choked sound somewhere between a whine and a whimper. His mind seemed to shut down under the pain, and he reflexively scrabbled against the machine. Of course, that was why his arm was locked in; he had no chance of getting free.

At that moment, he felt _something_ alien invade his body. It was as if an unknowable substance began to slowly make its way through his veins, stressing them to their limits as it went through his wrist into his arm, and then his shoulder.

The second that sensation reached his heart, the pain increased manifold. He could almost hear it as his heart pumped the tainted matter out through his arteries and into the rest of his body.

The pain was almost blinding, and as it increased, at the same time it felt like it was getting duller. He screamed in agony, but the sensation didn't seem to register. It was at that point when he felt something more than just the pain.

_Hunger._

It was a strange sensation, one that seemed to come out of left field. He'd felt hunger before, but it was nothing like what he was currently experiencing.

It was a deep, ravenous hunger. Almost primal in nature. He didn't feel an increased appetite, as if things just seemed to be more tasty in his eyes. No, it was a different kind of hunger. He felt an uncanny, unknown urge to feed. To devour _anything_ to sate himself. It was a terrible feeling, mix of hollowness and mind-numbing, gut-wrenching _pain_. Was this what it felt like to starve?

That gnawing sensation was just so intense that his mind couldn't think of anything other than how to end it immediately. He felt as though he could take a bite out of whatever he could get his hands on, but there was nothing he could eat. For only a split second, a thought invaded his mind:

_‘ **I** am edible.’_

Immediately, he was horrified and sickened, even as a small, animal part of him egged him on. ‘ _Go ahead, take a bite,_ ’ it seemed to say, ‘ _no need to think too hard about it. Just eat._ ’ Johan clutched his head with his free hand, gritting his teeth and letting out a strained whine from the depths of his throat.  
  
Through the pain and all-encompassing hunger, he could hear voices talking, but couldn't make out the specific words, however, as time passed, the sensation began to fade. Little by little, he began to feel things _other_ than burning suffering, namely a dull pain throughout his entire body, almost like he'd been beaten up by a mob.

"—he Test, call Amamiya!" someone said over the speakers in alarm.

"Belay that order," the voice he recognized as the one who welcomed him into the room declared sternly. "Look."

Johan fell on his knees in exhaustion, taking deep, heavy breaths as a metallic click reached his ears, followed by the sound of something releasing pressurized air. In that second, he felt like he could move his arm freely once more.

He slowly released the handle of the weapon that had invaded his body, allowing his arm to flop to his side limply. He vaguely noticed that his wrist was now adorned with the same manacle that Cedric and the other members of the staff had been wearing. After a moment of silence, he let out a weak, “ _Fuuuuck._ ”

He didn't know if the people on the observation room caught on to that or not, but immediately after, the man spoke up.

"I know this has been quite the harrowing experience, but we aren’t done yet," he said. "Rise up and take hold of your God Arc to finalize the Aptitude Test."

Johan looked balefully up in the general direction of the windows, but his weary glare was rather robbed of its force by the massive device blocking his line of vision. Exhaling loudly, he hauled himself to his feet, and, leaning on the device for stability, wrapped his hand around the grip of the God Arc once more.

He slowly raised the blade from where it had rested, marveling at how light it was. The blade was almost as big as he was, but it he had little trouble holding it up with one hand. It had a little heft to it, but there was little else to note about its weight.

As he admired the weapon in his hand, he saw the black mass twitch for a second before a fibrous tendril detached itself from it and reached out to a hole in the top of the red armlet, extending a bit further so that the connection was given some slack. He couldn't see his hand from that angle, but he felt it tense up briefly.

He stared at the mystery substance, a bit dubious about having a weapon with what was not only biological material incorporated into its design, but also what appeared to be something _alive_. He was still a bit too shaken from all the pain to do more than stare at the weird mass trailing from his wrist to the weapon, though.  
  
Further thoughts were interrupted by the man at the intercom.

"Congratulations are in order!" he exclaimed with clear delight in his voice. "You are the very first of the Far East Branch's New-Type God Eaters. Brilliant!"

Johan managed to rally what little civility that _hadn’t_ been devoured by the pain that had invaded his body, and croaked, “Thank you, sir.” He wasn’t sure if they could even hear him, but it wasn’t wise to seem rude to the people who, in all likelihood, held his life in their hands.

"Your response to the Test was certainly a violent one, so I am certain you would like to rest. However, now that we know you are a match we must ensure your welfare with a short physical," the man said with a tone that gave no indication as to whether or not Johan had been heard. "Please, wait in the lobby at the very end of the corridor; the doctor will see to you shortly. And do let someone know if you start feeling unwell."

The man gave a small pause as he turned to face the other people in the observation room, who seemed to be speaking without broadcasting their words into the intercom.

After a bit of movement, the two figures went to the left, where they seemingly vacated the room.

"I have great hopes for you," the man added with an unknowable emotion to his voice, something which seemed like elation, but not truly so.

Johan really didn’t know how to feel about that, so he nodded silently, and walked towards the blast doors, God Arc held low to his side.


	4. Fashion of the Future

As Johan walked down the hallway, he met a uniformed man who told Johan to follow him. He wasn't completely sure, but Johan thought he recognized him as one of the people who Cedric had talked to yesterday.

Johan, of course, complied with him and they both reached a decently sized room. On the left and right sides were large rectangular holes which were blocked off by waist-high railings. On the other side he could see strange machines vertically supporting several long blades and guns of varying shapes but similarly absurd sizes, all of them with the same black mass of tissue and core which made it clear they were all God Arcs. At the end of the right side railing there was a terminal much like the one he'd seen in his room.

The man quickly went to work typing at the terminal, and after a minute passed one of the many God Arcs was covered and tilted horizontally, before the entire thing was lowered down into the hole. Once it seemed it wouldn't move further, it quickly inserted itself into a peg of the same shape located in the wall, lined up with several more which were parallel with the rest of the armaments. The entire array shuddered and shook, moving the pegs and the occupied one away.

Johan stared as the ponderous process went on, momentarily transfixed by the clanking of gears and rumbling of machinery. It might have just been his exhaustion talking, but he was reminded of a scene from that old Pixar movie, Monsters, Inc. A smile twitched his lips as he considered the bizarreness of a post-apocalyptic weapons locker having a similar storage function to a children’s cartoon movie.

Eventually, the space was occupied by one machine once more, this one opening up to reveal it was completely empty.

"This is the God Arc Storage Area," the man explained. "Please place your God Arc on that thing over there. Handle down."

Johan did as he was instructed, taking great care with the way he handled the possibly-alive weapon. Wouldn’t want to _offend_ it, if it were capable of being offended.

"No worries, recruit. They don't bite... _you_ at least," the man said with some mirth.

Johan was (understandably) not reassured in the slightest by the revelation that these weapons could bite at all.

"In any case, I need to do some things here," he continued. "You go on to the lobby; just go out and take a left, from there it's a straight shot to it."

“Yessir,” Johan said with a nod, trying to keep the weariness from his voice.

"No need to be so formal; you've passed the Aptitude Test, so you're _technically_ higher ranked than me." He waved him off. "Don't worry too much about being ceremonial and stuff unless you're dealing with some uptight prick or someone who actually cares about it."

Johan blinked, briefly nonplussed at the idea of being higher rank than _anyone_ in a military organization literally immediately after joining, but didn’t think about it too much. It was probably better for his continued sanity.

At his expression, the man continued, "Don't let it get to your head through, that wouldn't end nicely for any of us."

Letting out a snort, Johan replied, “I don’t think there’s any risk of _that_ happening. I’m sure I’ll be _way_ too busy actually learning what it means to be a God Eater to think about things like being higher rank than someone.”

"Eh, there's always time for thoughts, but that's not important right now." The man shrugged. "Anyways, you should get to the lobby now. I think I heard your advisor was...yeah, Amamiya."

He paused and cringed a little.

"Ok, quick advice regarding her," the man said while looking at Johan straight in the eye. "Don't stare, don't freeze up and by all that is holy, _don't point it out._ You'll know what I'm talking about as soon as you meet her. Got it?"

Johan swallowed, now _sure_ that he was going to commit some sort of faux pas and get his head cut off—or bitten off, since these fucking weapons could apparently do that too—but he nodded. “Got it,” he replied in what he hoped was a confident tone. Fake it ‘til you make it, right?

"Just look at her face and nowhere else. That'll save you all the trouble I got into," the man said curtly before going back to work at the terminal. "Good luck, rookie."

“Thanks. I’m sure I’ll need it,” Johan offered wryly, before turning to leave.

* * *

It didn't take long for Johan to reach the lobby. It was rather grandiose, he reflected, but that was understandable with an organization like this one, first impressions and all that.

Directly in front of him when he entered was a semicircular check-in desk backed against a wall, from which hung a red and white flag emblazoned with the Fenrir insignia. A woman was manning the desk, wearing what Johan assumed to be a variant on the Fenrir uniform. Her reddish hair was curled slightly upwards on either side of her head in a pair of scrunchies, and she had a gentle smile on her face.

On either side of the desk were stairs leading up to a second level, which was dominated by several tall windows, reminiscent of ones you might find in a cathedral. A blast door sat squarely in the center of the arc of glittering golden glass, and Johan could _just_ make out the forms of four terminals on the second floor as well, two on each side of the exit.

Refocusing his attention on the ground floor, where he was now, he noticed two large screens, one on either side of the staircases. Furthermore, there were two couches, one to either side of him.

One of those couches was occupied by a...honestly, Johan couldn’t tell if they were a guy or a girl, so androgynous was their appearance. Of course, the fact that they were dressed like the unholy spawn of a clown and an anime cosplayer certainly didn’t help things.

Sparing them a speculative glance, Johan walked over to the counter and spoke. “Hello, miss. I just finished my Aptitude Test; is there anything I need to do here, or do I just wait?”

The redhead gave him a nod and spoke up. "Good day!" she said brightly with a small bow. "And yes, you should wait for your advisor to give you the go-ahead to meet with Doctor Sakaki before anything else. There's plenty of free seats over there if you'd like to take one while you wait."

Johan chuckled wryly. “I think I’ll take you up on that, thanks. I appreciate the direction, Miss…” he trailed off expectantly.

"Hibari Takeda. Nice to meet you," she replied. "I oversee mission orders and support God Eaters from the Den as an Operator, I look forward to working with you."

“Johan Lewis, and likewise,” he offered with a small smile. “Now, I guess I should probably rest up while I can, eh?”

The young woman nodded. "Of course, go ahead, don't let me talk your ear off," she said with a small chuckle.

He gave a small chuckle of his own, before nodding to her and walking over to the same couch where the androgynous youth from earlier was sitting. He offered them a nod, before sinking into the seat with a light groan. While his curiosity about the other person’s gender nibbled at the back of his mind like an overeager hamster, he wasn’t _quite_ tired enough to just blurt out a question like that.

The person in question looked at him for a second before speaking up. "Sup! Want some gum?"

The youth’s voice was light and somewhat high-pitched, but distinctly male, Johan reflected as he looked over at him. “Sure,” he replied.

He dug a hand into his pocket for a bit before stopping.

"Oh wait, uh…" he said sheepishly. "Yeah, totally out. I just downed the last piece. Sorry 'bout that."

Johan waved it off. “Don’t worry about it, dude.” Turning to face the boy squarely, he extended his hand. “Name’s Johan Lewis. You?”

"Kota Fujiki!" he replied enthusiastically before staring at the manacle on Johan's hand. "So, you're a match too?"

“Yyyep,” Johan drew out his reply. “Man, I’m sure I’m supposed to be excited about this, but all I can think about is a _nap_.”

"That makes two of us, although I'd like to watch Bugarally instead. I heard something about us having to attend some some lectures." He groaned unenthusiastically. "But well, that's just how it is."

Johan nodded. “Small price to pay if it means we can make a difference, I guess.” He stretched his arms over his head and gave a jaw-cracking yawn. “I just hope we get called up soon; I’d hate to fall asleep over here and mess up my first impressions.”

"Yeah, you look pretty bad, man," Kota noted with a shrug. "It's pretty early to do that though, so you...uh...might want to get some coffee? I dunno, do you think we'll get to eat after we're done with our physicals?"

_“God_ I hope so,” Johan replied with feeling. “That test left me hungry enough to eat my weight in porridge, so... _yeah._ ”

"You too, huh?" Kota said while exaggeratedly dropping his head down. "Man, a little warning would have been nice..."

Johan nodded his agreement. “Can’t say I was prepared for _that_.”

"Yeah, sheesh." Kota shivered a bit. "That was pretty extreme, but hey, we're God Eaters now. I can't wait to go visit home and tell—"

His words were cut short by the clacking of heels, the boy turned in the direction of the sound, his jaw hanging in the air.

Johan turned with him, and had to force his face to passivity. Thank _god_ he’d been born with what people had called “a resting bitchface”. Otherwise, his shock at the approaching woman’s appearance might have shown on his face beyond a slight widening of the eyes.

And what an appearance it was. Ignoring for the moment the fact that she, like everyone else he’d encountered thus far, was a particularly attractive person from an objective standpoint, her clothes...in a word, were fetish-wear.

The neckline of her shirt was more like a _navel_ line, and the sides of her pants had sizeable portions that weren’t even _there_ , exposing the flesh of her thighs to air.

If someone had told Johan that she was on the way to an...adult entertainment club, he wouldn’t have hesitated to believe them. Considering the circumstances, however, he assumed that _this_ was what the man from earlier had been talking about.

The woman stared at the two of them with an expression seemingly stuck halfway between disdain and displeasure; she carried herself with an air of gravitas quite unlike any he had seen ever since he'd arrived here.

"Stand," she demanded, her voice even and leaving no room for questioning. Johan was rising to his feet before the word had stopped ringing in his ears. Back stiff and arms flat at his sides, he stood as still as he could.

Something about this woman _screamed_ authority, reminding him of the most intimidating parts of his dad (who’d been in the military) and his martial arts instructor (who could probably have folded him into a pretzel with just his feet).

Kota was not so quick on the uptake and kept staring at the woman, blinking in surprise. At this, she spoke up once more. "Stand and to attention. Now!"

At her harsher repetition of the order, the outlandishly dressed boy got on his feet instantly, exaggeratedly fixing his arms to his sides and putting his heels together.

Johan shot Kota a brief side-eye before returning his gaze squarely to the woman’s face.

"Excellent. I'm on a tight schedule, so we'll keep this quick," she said with a tone which showed no gratification at her order being followed. "My name is Tsubaki Amamiya. I am the senior Operator here at the Far East and I'll be your Advisor. Your schedule is as follows: a medical check up followed by basic God Eater training, where you will be taught tactics and strategies, as well as a brief overview of God Arcs, armament and the Terminals to access the Norn Database."

Her gaze hardened even further as she stared at the recruits in front of her. Johan did his best to remain impassive in the face of Miss Amamiya’s formidable presence. The rivulets of sweat that trickled down the sides of his face told him that he wasn’t succeeding as well as he’d like, but that was understandable; this woman was _terrifying_.

"Until this moment, God Eaters have put their lives on the line to defend you; now it's your turn to repay them," the Advisor declared forcefully. "If you don't want to die over something stupid, every order will be answered and enacted immediately. Understood?"

Memories of countless martial arts classes flickered in his mind as he replied, “Yes, ma’am,” with a bit more vigor than necessary. Kota followed suit with a far less audible repetition of Johan's own words.

"Good," the woman said while her expression softened considerably, but still remained very much a scowl. "Now, as to your exams..."

She turned to face Johan specifically. "Let's begin with you, shall we? Orders are to report to Doctor Paylor Sakaki's office by fifteen-hundred hours; until then, you're free to tour the facilities as you wish."

Johan nodded wordlessly, but remained at attention. He wasn’t moving an _inch_ from where he was standing until she _explicitly_ dismissed him.

"Welcome to the Far East Branch, which we affectionately call 'The Den'," she said with a far less terse voice. "This is your home now; these teammates, your family."

She closed her eyes and took a breath.

"That will be all. Godspeed," she said before walking away from them and standing in front of the reception desk, directing her attention to the young woman manning it.

Johan let out a shaky breath, and let his shoulders sag, before slumping onto the couch. _“Fuckin’_ hell,” he muttered, barely audible to even his own ears.

"Yeah, talk about a scary boss…" Kota whispered before talking aloud. "So...uh...where do we go from here?"

Johan glanced over at the other boy, a slightly peeved expression on his face. “They didn’t tell me anything more than you, I’d assume. But...I doubt they want us just wandering around; something about getting killed by heavy machinery?” He shrugged. _“I_ am going to wait and see if they send a guide, and if that fails, I’ll ask Miss Takeda over there, at the reception desk. She was friendly enough.”

"Eh, yeah. Probably a good idea." The boy nodded. "So...what do we do while waiting?"

“I don’t suppose you’ve got a deck of cards or something?” Johan asked wryly.

"I mean...I do, but I left them back home until I was sure I could take things from there here." Kota scratched at the back of his head.

Letting out a snort, Johan replied, “Probably a smart idea. Hmm...ever play Twenty Questions?”

"Never heard of it, actually," he said while scratching his chin. "Actually, I think I've _heard_ of something like that before? I dunno."

“Well, it goes like this…”

* * *

After explaining the game and its rules, which Kota didn't take long to understand, they began playing, deciding who would be 'it' first with a rock, paper, scissors, with the younger of the two winning.

Kota seemed to have a lot of fun as the two went through the yes/no questions, while Johan was completely stumped. However, when he asked the fourteenth question, "Is that person associated with ‘Bugarally’?" and the boy answered with a 'yes' he instantly palmed his face. “I,” Johan admitted, his voice muffled by his hand, “know nothing about ‘Bugarally’.”

"Whaaaaaaaat!?" Kota yelled out loud in shock and horror. "What do you mean you know nothing about it?"

Letting out a dry chuckle, Johan replied, “It’s complicated. Feel free to call me an ‘uncultured peasant sow’ or something if it makes you feel better.”

"Very well, you uncultured peasant sow," the boy said while puffing out his chest and making an exaggerated nobleman-like voice. "It is clear that my tastes are far too refined for the likes of you."

…

Johan _liked_ this guy. His fashion sense may have been as abominable as some Jojo antagonists, but he had as sharp a wit as any he’d seen. Letting out another chuckle, he replied, _“Clearly.”_ Leaning back to fold his hands behind his head, he let out a long, jaw-cracking yawn. _“Ugh_. I don’t know what I wanna do more: eat, or sleep. Wish I could do both at once, but that ain’t safe.”

"Well, I dunno, maybe you should go with the doctor early?" Kota asked offhandedly. "I mean, it's worth a shot, right?"

“Probably,” Johan agreed, rising to his feet. “I guess I’ll ask Miss Takeda if I can do so.” He turned to go, before pausing, then extending his hand to Kota. “If _your lordship_ can deign to sully his hands, this _lowly peasant_ would offer you a handshake.” A smirk split his face.

"Hmph. I shall make an exception this time, mongrel," the youth replied in a clearly faked tone of superiority before offering accepting the handshake.

His smirk fading to a smaller, genuine smile, Johan shook Kota’s hand firmly, before saying, “In all seriousness, it was good to meet you, Kota.”

"Yeah, same," the teen replied with a happy chuckle. "Hope we can make a good team and be the best defenders of the people ever!"

Johan nodded. “I’ll drink to that...if I drank, anyways.”

"I mean, maybe some years later?" Kota said with mirth. "I mean, I heard some guy...Lindow, I think he was called? He said something about wanting to crack a beer open when he got back to his room."

Johan shrugged. “None of my business what he does when he’s off duty, as long as it doesn’t affect me.”

"Not what I meant by that, but eh." He returned the shrug. "Anyways, take care, alright?"

“You too, _milord,”_ Johan tossed over his shoulder, receiving a chuckle in response.

As he walked towards the reception desk (Miss Amamiya was mercifully absent, having left during his and Kota’s game), Johan mused to himself. As fun as matching wits with the fashion-challenged boy had been, it didn’t change the fact that Johan was tired, hungry, and _sore_ . Hopefully, he could get the rest of his initiation done with so he could relax – or rather, _pass the fuck out_. He had a sinking suspicion that it wouldn’t be as quick as he’d like, though.


	5. Meet the Boss

When Johan asked Hibari if he could go meet the doctor sooner, she answered that it wouldn't be a problem, but that she'd have to call him to let him know that he was on his way. After that, she gave him directions and sent him off with a smile.

Johan thanked her as he left, then proceeded to follow those directions; he went up the stairs at the side of the reception desk and came across an elevator. From there he went up to the fourth floor and went straight ahead through a corridor similar to the one his room was in, but a different, more muted color scheme and black doors with seemingly decorative yellow crosses that segmented them.

The card scanners were like the ones he'd seen before, and most likely worked the same way. Pushing the button there, the door slid open, granting him entrance into a particularly  _ strange  _ room.

Stepping in, he noted that it was of the exact same shape as his own room, but slightly larger. To the sides were couches and tables that didn't look particularly out of place, but there were several shelves with old-timey, Japanese looking furnishings. In stark contrast to this, on the side in front of him was a large setup of monitors and servers whose cables were haphazardly strewn about the place and two red blast doors next to the corners of the room.

In the center of this microcosm of screens was a grey-haired man. The word that first sprang to mind upon looking at him was “eccentric”. He wore a pair of spectacles on his face, but two more pairs hung from chains around his neck. Yet another chain curved out from beneath his knee-length, open-fronted overcoat to connect with an old-timey pocket watch, which he held in a white-gloved palm.

Aside from the extra pairs of glasses, the most unusual thing about the man’s attire had to be the striped skirt he was wearing. To Johan, it looked like something straight out of a Native American thrift shop (and indeed, he’d seen his own mother wearing something similar on many occasions).

The final thing of note about the man was his face. Johan couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but  _ something _ about his expression made him uneasy, like he was looking at a snake.

Just outside the circle of computers, there was another man who turned to face Johan as he entered, both of his hands behind his back. His outfit was a lot more restrained, but no less strange. A white longcoat with a high collar hung from his shoulders, under which there seemed to be another, slightly shorter, navy blue coat. A black cravat or scarf of some sort was draped around his neck and held together by a metal decoration with several engravings. For some reason, Johan got the impression of “aristocracy” from the man’s appearance, though he couldn’t be sure if he  _ was _ nobility.

The man with several sets of glasses rose a hand in greeting but did not turn to face him for a couple seconds.

"Hm, you certainly came a lot sooner than expected, but I suppose the sooner this examination is done the better," the man spoke in a high-pitched voice before getting on his feet for a moment. "I'm Paylor Sakaki –  _ Doctor _ Paylor Sakaki; Chief of Aragami Tech R&D."

The man chuckled before taking his seat once more. "Welcome aboard, New-Type. As you can see, I'm still a bit busy prepping everything, so you'll have to excuse me for a moment."

“Of course,” Johan replied with a nod, then glanced over to the blond man who’d yet to address him. Said person opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the doctor at that very moment.

"Johan Lewis, correct?" Sakaki said, less as a question and more as a statement. "That's certainly quite interesting, I must say. What are the odds of someone called that arriving in the Far East. Hm, Johan?"

Johan ran a hand through his hair and chuckled nervously, but before he had a chance to speak the blond man interjected.

"Yes, it's certainly quite the coincidence," the man said with an absolute deadpan, making it clear that if he wasn't someone of high standing he'd be rolling his eyes at the doctor. "I'll make a point not to schedule any meetings with you while you're in the company of this young man."

The New-Type recognized the man's voice, realizing it belonged to the person who had welcomed him into the Aptitude Test's room.  _ ‘His name’s Johan too, isn’t it,’ _ he thought flatly. If so, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d had that happen to him; it wasn’t exactly an  _ exotic _ name.

Outwardly, Johan maintained a neutral expression as he watched the byplay between the two men.

"I suppose you could always save yourself the trouble by doing that. Still, wouldn't you say it'd be an amusing conversation, Johan?" Doctor Sakaki added thoughtfully, not making it clear who he was addressing on that last part.

"It might be, but now is not the time to prioritize our amusement over current business or the well-being of our new recruit, Paylor." The man cut straight to the heart of the matter.

"I suppose you're right. I'll prepare for the examination," the doctor replied before going right back to typing. "In the meantime, why don't you take care of your speech thing?"

If the man was in some way insulted or exasperated by his companion's flippant attitude, he didn't let it show on his face. He took a deep breath and looked straight at Johan.

"Thank you for taking part in the Aptitude Test, and apologies for the lack of prior information regarding it. It is certainly not a pleasant experience, but far less people would be willing to take the test if they knew what it required of them."

_ ‘I wonder why,’ _ Johan thought with a small amount of snide, tired irritability.  _ ‘Could it be that most people  _ don’t  _ enjoy having their bodies invaded by tentacles and their hearts pumped full of god-knows-what?’ _

"Allow me to introduce myself: I am Johannes von Schicksal, Director of the Fenrir Far East Branch," the blond man declared firmly. "Once again, congratulations on your acceptance. I know you shall do many a great thing in your time here."

"Don't let the speechifying fool you," Sakaki chimed in, interrupting the flow of the conversation entirely. "He's an ex-tech-guy. No doubt the New-Type program caught his interest."

"A 'tech-guy?'" The Director turned to face the Doctor with a raised eyebrow. "Do keep in mind that I hung up my labcoat because we have  _ you  _ now, Paylor."

"Once a scientist, always a scientist, Johannes," Sakaki answered playfully.

The blond man stood quietly for a moment before continuing. "Perhaps...In any case, if I may return to my 'speechifying' now, Doctor?"

"The floor is yours." The impish man gestured for him to continue.

Johannes turned to face the young man once more and spoke up.

"Now then...the Fenrir Corporation has many goals of which you are now a critical factor in their success. Your duties, while crucial, are quite simple: to hunt down and destroy Aragami to gather materials," the Director stated clearly while staring intently at Johan. "These materials are then converted into resources, which are used to maintain this base at optimal operational capacity, as well as to progress the Aegis Project."

In the lull after the blond man said that name, which certainly seemed  _ very  _ important to Johan, the two could hear the mutterings of Doctor Sakaki, mentioning something about 'these numbers' in surprise.

Before they got caught up in his rambling, the Director continued.

"The Aegis Project, as you may or may not know from advertisement on the Fenrir Broadcast System, is to be Humanity's Utopia," the man explained. "A self-sufficient fortress surrounded by a massive Anti-Aragami Wall, located far at the sea, over the Japan Trench—"

"Ah, of course! Of course!" Sakaki interrupted once more over his rambling, louder than before. This earned him a stern stare from Johannes, but nothing else.

"Our current model, as I'm sure you're aware, is unsustainable. People are often turned back at the gates of the Anti-Aragami wall simply because there is no way to accommodate everyone inside our branches," the man continued with a tone slightly more forceful than before. "Once the final phase of the Aegis Project is complete, this deplorable status quo shall be completely overturned, and we will be able to house all of humanity within its walls to live in peace, free from the threat of these monsters—"

The doctor laughed loudly before exclaiming. "Amazing! The New-Types are a Miracle!"

At this, Johannes turned to face the overly excited scientist and spoke angrily "Paylor! I am trying to teach something!"

"Oh! Yes, sorry about that!" Sakaki answered sheepishly, clearly not putting his heart into the apology. "It's just...these readings from the Aptitude Test are beyond our wildest expectations!"

The director closed his eyes and took a deep breath before facing Johan once more.

"Then it seems the future of humanity is in good hands. You will do us proud," the blond said calmly. "Are there any questions you would like to ask?"

Johan cupped his chin thoughtfully. “Well...when can I anticipate combat training to begin? And what will that look like, since I’ve got this ‘New-Type’ God Arc?”

The man smiled at his question.

"It is good to know that you wish to take the initiative," he commented briefly. "In any case, Training is divided into several stages, with combat training close to the beginning of the curriculum. As you are the wielder of a New-Type God Arc, your combat training will take double the usual time, perhaps a little more. You will begin as soon as you complete your other courses, which you will take one at a time and will only be deemed complete once you have proven yourself adequately skilled in their subject matter."

Johannes scratched his chin in thought. "However...you came early to your examination since you were not feeling well, correct?"

Johan nodded. “The Aptitude Test left me feeling...like a husk, honestly. I feel like I could eat my weight in food and sleep for a week.” He have a wry smile. “Naturally, I’m kinda  _ concerned _ about that.”

"That is an expected response, although it was certainly in slightly greater measure from the norm,” the Director replied with a pause, seemingly considering his words. "Normally, you'd begin training as soon as your examination was done, but you'll be excused from it for the day should the Doctor deem it necessary."

Johan nodded. It made sense that they’d want to begin getting him in fighting shape as soon as possible; he figured they needed all the God Eaters they could get.

"Any further questions?" Johannes asked. "I'm quite busy most of the time, so now might be your only chance to ask for answers from me."

Johan let out a thoughtful hum. “Are there any non-combatant duties I’ll be expected to fulfill? Beyond keeping my quarters clean, I mean.”

"Aside from the occasional transport missions, none in particular unless you take up a position as an officer."

Nodding, the bespectacled brunet put forth his next question. “How is combat organized? Are there squads or units? What can I expect in terms of learning to compliment other people’s fighting techniques?”

"So many questions. Excellent," the Director expressed with a slightly smug smile. "On most occasions, you will be expected to operate in four-man cells, comprised of members from your unit and perhaps one of a different unit, should they be free and willing to accompany you."

Crossing his arms, the man made a pensive expression. "As for your last question...that will be decided by your instructor once you've been in the field long enough for your specialties to become apparent."

A beeping noise rang out through the room, coming from the blond man's coat. He moved aside a part of the white trench coat, revealing a pocket from which he took an object which looked almost like an old Nokia cellphone.

"Apologies, it seems I'll have an important appointment," he spoke up after checking it for a few seconds. He turned to Johan. "I shall take my leave and place you in the Doctor's hands."

Johan nodded, then walked a step forward, sticking his right hand out. “It was good to meet you, sir.”

"Likewise, it was a pleasure to meet a young man as inquisitive as you." The man gave a slight bow and took the young man's hand, shaking it firmly.

As he did so, Johan could faintly hear a sound. Like a wail or a cry of some sort. He couldn't tell the exact place it came from, but it was muffled, almost like it came from another room.

"What was that?" the Director asked while looking around the room and letting go of the hand bound by the red manacle.

"Hm? What happened, Johannes?" Sakaki asked while turning from his screens.

"For a second, I thought I heard..."

The man looked suspiciously at the doctor, who seemed completely unfazed by the stare, before shaking his head.

"In any case, I'll depart now." The Director moved forward past Johan, continuing to talk without turning back. "Paylor, be sure to forward the results."

The Doctor simply waved at him lazily as he left the room, typing in a few things and getting up.

"Well, that was certainly strange," Sakaki mentioned offhandedly. "But anyways, let's get this examination out of the way, shall we?"

“Sounds like a plan, Doctor,” Johan replied, stifling a yawn. “What do I need to do?”

"Nothing too difficult, just a few things," The multi-spectacled man answered without actually saying anything before pointing towards one of the red doors on the wall. "Let's just get to one of these rooms, alright?"

* * *

The testing was nothing particularly out of the ordinary as far as such things went. However, Johan's tiredness made it a bit hard to follow along. Because of that, Doctor Sakaki had him excused from training for the rest of the day, briefly mentioning that he'd have ordered that regardless.

After the end of the tests, the Doctor sent Johan on his way, briefly mentioning that it would be for the best if he just went for food and then straight to bed. He then added that he should go to the reception hall as his Fenrir ID card was most likely prepared by now.

Johan thanked the eccentric man and moved on. He wasn't feeling great, so he quickly did as he was instructed, before retiring to his room with a tray of food and a crisp I.D. card.

After eating a meal of chicken and mixed vegetables (both having that same odd taste), Johan unceremoniously plopped down on his cot. Within moments, he was unconscious.


	6. Training Montage

Starting from the next day onwards, Johan began his training as a God Eater. His routine was to be the following: reporting to his advisor by seven sharp, getting told what he'd be training in during the rest of the day, being sent off to eat breakfast, picking up his God Arc and then going to one of many previously prepared training rooms (which had the same layout as the room he'd taken the Aptitude Test in) for long periods of time.

When he went to retrieve his God Arc from storage, Amamiya gave him a quick rundown on how to operate the terminals all over the Far East branch. The large, steampunkish contraptions were simple to use; they were fairly similar to computers like the ones from the past, with a few exceptions here and there. Some functions and files were locked down and had to be unlocked by inserting one's hand with the red manacle into a slot to gain authorization.

Once the explanation was over, he grabbed his weapon. Black tendrils found their way into the hole on the bracelet once more and he felt a slight tug at his hand. Soon, his training began in earnest.

* * *

The instructions he received for his first course were deceptively simple; to move across the room in whichever way he wanted, exerting himself by running, jumping and strafing as fast as he could.

Johan did exactly as he was instructed, trying to run from one end of the room to the other, though he stumbled around for a moment before finding his footing. When he arrived, he quickly realized he'd crossed the distance in a surprisingly short amount of time. The fact was odd to say the least, but he simply went through the motions and didn’t speak up.

As he went through a gamut of several different activities, some done on his own initiative and others ordered by the advisor, he noticed that his physical condition was far beyond what it was originally. He moved faster, jumped higher and further, tired less quickly than usual and seemed overall stronger than he was before joining.

Johan had a feeling that it was a side effect of whatever the hell had been pumped into his heart during the Aptitude Test, but he wasn’t going to ask. He was probably better off  _ not _ knowing what manner of biological horrors his body had undergone.

"That's enough," Amamiya spoke up. "You don't stumble around when trying to move anymore, so I see no point in continuing this course."

Johan nodded sharply and stood at the ready, waiting for his next instructions.

"You've adjusted fairly quickly to the changes in your condition, so we will move on to your next course immediately," the woman declared. "We're going to Training Room 03. Move out."

* * *

The next course turned out to be one on how to move naturally in the field while carrying his God Arc around. The room set aside for the course was roughly the same size as the previous room, if a bit taller...but the layout was wildly different. There was debris everywhere, along with walls, elevated platforms and a small tower in the center.

Amamiya explained that, while God Arcs were heavy and his own averaged at a weight of 55 kilograms, his vastly improved physical condition compensated for that...but not for the  _ sheer size _ of the damn thing.

Johan quickly understood just what an  _ art  _ it was to lug around a person-sized sword without mishaps when he accidentally tripped and faceplanted on a wall when his God Arc got stuck in a corner without him noticing.

"When in confined spaces such as corridors, your God Arc's point must be  _ at your front!"  _ Amamiya admonished him for his screw up. "Try again, this time faster!"

Face burning, he did as he was told. He had to do  _ better _ . Mistakes here cost him dignity. Mistakes on a mission could cost him his  _ life _ .

On his second attempt he managed to get beyond the corner, and despite going faster, he was doing better than before.

...At least until he heard a screech from his left side as the tip of the blade carved a scratch on the wall.

"Again." The woman said the word almost angrily.

The rest of the day proceeded in much the same way, as did the next one. He messed up somewhere down the line, was scolded, tried to correct himself, messed up in a different way, was scolded again, and so on and so forth until he could do what he was told to properly. He ducked, dodged, clung to ledges, climbed up stairs and dozens of other things besides.

But if there was something that stood out to him more than anything else among the haze of exercise, it was when he was told to climb up the tower in the middle of the room—which was approximately three storeys high—and was given instructions on how to properly fall and drop down from great heights. Obviously, he was told to climb all the way up there to  _ practice it. _

Needless to say, Johan was thankful he got it right on the first try and that Amamiya decided he was good enough at it when he did it again two more times.

* * *

Johan grimaced when a hairline crack appeared on the glass he held when he placed it down on the table.

"Lewis, this is better than the last three, but still not acceptable," his advisor said with a frown. "Again."

The latest course took place in another new room. It was much smaller than both previous rooms, but was even more cluttered with stuff than the second room had been. It was  _ packed  _ with a random assortment of completely common objects.

Apparently, new God Eaters had a tendency to break stuff with their newly acquired strength if they weren't careful. The facilities and most ordinance in the Den were built to withstand them in case of any mishaps and even then it wasn't like he was strong enough to dent metal with a few good punches, but it wasn't like everything in the world was just as resistant. He had to learn how to restrain himself when handling fragile objects without breaking them, such as glasses of water, thin brittle plastics, metal cutlery that could easily bend and so on.

This time, he wasn't alone in the room. The other rookies he'd seen on the truck days ago and some other God Eaters were around doing the same exercises as he was, all of them proudly wearing their uniforms. Amamiya was on the opposite side of the table he sat at, watching not only his progress, but that of three other people.

"Fujiki, you may not be breaking any glasses, but you will not get anywhere in this course unless you handle them as you would have before the Aptitude Test."

Among them was Kota, who moved the cup with both hands  _ very slowly and carefully _ to an almost cartoonish degree. Surprisingly enough, he was wearing a uniform now too.

"Uh—ma'am, yes ma'am!" the other God Eater said exaggeratedly, putting the glass on the table and watching with wide eyes as the base split into a thousand pieces before his eyes.

The sheer amount of disapproval on their Advisor's face was something Johan would remember for many days after.

* * *

It was time for the fourth course, and Johan was caught between nervousness and excitement.

He was back in the first room again, his God Arc firmly clenched in his hands for the first time since he’d started the motor-skill readjustment course – and this time, he was going to be doing almost the exact opposite of what he’d been practicing for the last couple of days.

His current course was on how to handle the behemoth of a blade he held. The prospect made him worry a bit, as he'd be handling a  _ weapon  _ and he wasn't the most combative person, but the object seemed very fascinating in all of its parts, so he couldn't help but feel a bit eager to know just how he'd be using it and how it ticked.

Training went... _ fairly  _ well. Johan vaguely recalled how one was supposed to handle a blade from watching instructional videos on it, once upon a time. Of course, a vague recollection of watching someone else handle a weapon quite different from this one wasn’t nearly enough to give him any sort of proper form, but it was apparently a good start, as Amamiya didn't correct him much. He was content with using the knowledge to avoid accidentally cutting his legs off or something, but that was better than he'd expected.

His study of the blade was nothing outside of the ordinary. He was told how to properly position himself after a cut in order to throw the next one and what stances he should take for what kind of move, repeating the same movements for hours at a time over several days until he was almost doing them in his sleep.

To break the monotony of the drills, Amamiya also instructed him on how to use the God Arc's shield. She preemptively told him to only use it if he was absolutely sure he  _ couldn't  _ dodge an attack, then explained how to deploy it.

Pushing a small button close to the black, sinewy mass of the weapon, Johan saw the fleshy tumor squirm before the two plates next to the revolver chamber of the Arc extended out and clamped together on the side where the edge of the blade was placed, held together by thick strips of dark muscle. It was a very small shield compared to the rest of the God Arc, around the size of his torso.

Of course, he had to hold it in a specific way. Integrating the deployment of his shield into his drills, he practiced the moves over and over, both while prone and in motion, for two whole days before Amamiya decided to mix things up.

"Using the projectors hidden on the walls as well as gathered information from the Norn database, we'll create a simulated Aragami for you to fight. Designation: Ogretail," the woman lectured him from the heights of the observation room. "Keep in mind that it's just a projected image. You won't hit flesh, so your God Arc will keep its momentum as you swing it."

A whirring noise resonated around the entire room.

"Obviously, we can't simulate you getting hit by it, so if it so much as touches you, it will be assumed that you 'died'," his instructor continued her explanation. "This will be the case even if you use your shield.  _ Do not get hit _ , am I clear?"

“Yes ma’am!” Johan replied promptly.

"Very well," she answered gravely. "If you 'die' in this simulation, you can expect to be set back for several more days while you keep repeating your sword drills. If that is clear, then let's begin."

“Understood, ma’am.”

A few seconds after finishing his sentence, a low beep rang out and the bipedal form of a monster faded into view in the middle of the room. Were it not for the scan lines on the creature’s flesh, Johan would have thought it a living thing.

It had no forearms to speak of, just a pair of thickly muscled, furless legs that terminated in two massive, wickedly pointed talons. What little of its torso he could see was covered in coarse, straw-like tan fur. It’s head was covered in what appeared to be a crest of solid bone, from which several spikes jutted menacingly.

And its teeth; God, its _ teeth! _ Not only was its slavering maw filled with what had to have been at  _ least  _ a hundred razor-sharp fangs, but two mighty tusks jutted up from the monster’s jaw.

The final part of the beast’s body, and clearly the attribute from which its name had been derived, was its tail. It was a massive structure of bone, all spikes and danger, though in shape it rather reminded Johan of a tribal mask.

Oh, and then there was the fact that it could probably fit his entire upper body in its mouth without trouble.  _ Wonderful. _

_ ‘They certainly don’t do things half-assed, do they?’ _ Johan thought wryly, as ever reaching for acerbic wit in the face of fear.

The creature leaned back as it took in air and swung its head from left to right as it let out a roar, before beginning to approach him quickly. It was fast, but Johan could see it coming. As it got within about six meters of him, he raised his God Arc and moved forward and to one side of the Ogretail, keeping its sharp teeth, talons, and axe-like tail in his view.

The long-fanged monstrosity slowed down to a halt before jumping back just before Johan could reach it and choosing to growl at him. Keeping his weapon raised and doing his best not to flinch at the growl, the fledgling God Eater took slow, measured steps towards and to one side of the beast, circling in an effort to maneuver it into having its back to the nearest wall.

The monster hopped back again and raised its tail in the air. Only a moment after the motion, it swung the limb back slightly, and the spikes on its tail bent sharply before growing longer impossibly fast as they were pointed towards Johan.

Bizarrely, he was reminded of a  _ Pokémon _ move, of all things, and readied himself to dodge if the Ogretail  _ was _ , in fact, about to use Poison Sting and shoot spikes at him.

He quickly found his suspicions proven right as the projected Aragami swung its tail forwards and a volley of spikes was sent his way. He dodged just in time, narrowly avoiding the pointy objects and eliciting another roar from the Ogretail.

Doing his best to ignore the loud, grating sound, Johan moved decisively to close the distance between him and the Aragami once more. He didn’t yet know how to use the ranged portion of his God Arc, so staying that far from the beast would only be to its advantage. Even as he moved, he kept his eyes peeled for anything suspicious or unusual that the creature might do; if it had projectile spikes, who knew what else it might be capable of?

Right on cue, the monster bent its tail so that it was between its legs and leaned back, then lunged towards Johan while using its tail as a springboard. The God Eater Rookie thought it'd do something like that and managed to dodge with time to spare, leaving him just a couple meters away from the side of the Ogretail. Just a few steps away from sword range.

With a noise somewhere between a roar and a  _ kiai _ , Johan darted forward and slashed at the monster’s ankle, prepared to dart out of range the moment after his attack connected (or failed) if need be. The blade struck true, but kept going as the monster was just a projection and slid across the floor, sending sparks flying. As the image of the Ogretail collapsed with an angry grunt, the young man stepped back in time to avoid being crushed. Not wasting any time, he moved to thrust the blade into the back of its neck, keeping one eye on its tail even as he did so.

As soon as he did, he heard a loud cracking noise, followed by a loud wail of pain from the Aragami, which twitched for a bit before it stopped moving entirely. Johan exhaled shakily. Somehow, he’d fucking done it.

"Impressive." As the projection disappeared, he heard his advisor speak up. "I didn't expect you to kill it so easily."

Letting out another breath and lowering his God Arc to a more ‘at-rest’ position, Johan nodded, replying with, “Neither was I, ma’am. I think I just...got a gut feeling what it was going to do by observing its movements, and did my best to not get hit.”

"Everything tends to telegraph their actions well in advance, Aragami included. Do not expect the stronger, older ones to have tells as generous as those of this simulated Ogretail," Amamiya lectured without skipping a beat. "Now, as for my assessment of that fight..."

Johan waited patiently for his instructor to continue speaking, committing her warning to memory. It was advice that  _ should _ be logically obvious, but it was important all the same.

“If there is one criticism to be had, it's that you were too passive," she commented. "You waited for the Aragami's actions before taking action yourself. It's good to be careful, and wait for an opening before attacking, but if you just wait for one to present itself you'll only tire yourself out. Worse yet, if there are more Aragami in the area, you're just giving them time to gather and surround you."

Johan nodded. He saw the wisdom in her words, and knew he’d have to break his habits of reactive striking that he’d cultivated in martial arts training. “Understood. Rather than wait for an opening, take action to force the enemy to make  _ themselves _ open.”

…

Something about this woman terrified him into speaking and acting like a soldier. It was probably for the best; he was basically going to  _ be _ one.

"Good, you're catching on quick. Saves everyone a lot of time," Amamiya replied, seemingly pleased with his answer. "I have to make note of one thing, however: when you saw an opening, you took it and made use of it with extreme efficiency, first making sure to immobilized it, then finishing it off as quickly as possible. Your blade pierced the Ogretail's Core, effectively killing it instantly and earning yourself the fastest time any recruit has ever managed to achieve in this simulation."

Johan blinked, eyes widening in momentarily shock. Who knew that recognizing and correctly identifying special attack startups in video games would have a useful, nay, a  _ life-saving  _ real life application.  _ ‘And they said Dark Souls would never help me in real life. Take that, casuls!’ _

Abruptly realizing that Amamiya was probably waiting for a response from him, he said, “I suppose I will have to keep up this momentum, then.”

"That would be for the best," the woman replied without any further praise.

And with that, training resumed.

* * *

The day he began his course on how to use the gun attached to the God Arc proved to be very interesting.

This time he was sent to the firing range, which was several times smaller in width than the usual rooms but far,  _ far  _ longer. Just seeing the targets set up at the far end conjured a certain kind of anticipation, but before he could begin training with his gun, he first had to learn how to switch his weapon's form so he could use the cannon attached to his God Arc.

This proved to be...the strangest part of his training thus far. Amamiya explained that God Arcs had a  _ partial  _ thought-based interface, and that if he simply thought of it, his New-Type God Arc would switch over to long range mode.

Johan wasn’t quite sure how to feel about having a probably-alive weapon with a direct line into his brain, but he couldn’t deny the efficiency of the function.

As he concentrated on the thought for a moment, he saw the black mass writhe around. The surprise of seeing the sudden movement unnerved him and stopped his thoughts, but after a few attempts, he managed to focus on the idea long enough that the scene unfolding before him did not faze him enough to pull him out of focus

It was hard to follow along even while it was moving so slowly, and if he had to describe the process, he might have needed a moment to find the right words.

Three things happened at the same time to transform his weapon. First, the cannon-like object beneath the blade moved and coiled around the area where the blade was, turning in such a way that it was connected to the revolver chamber before the barrel extended to its full length, revealing it was of roughly the same length as his blade; second, the knife sword collapsed into itself neatly, moving down so it was placed directly beneath his gun; and thirdly, the plates comprising the shield extended outwards to enable the previous two movements with ease before settling right next to the handle.

Johan kept his mind on the idea of ‘change’ even as his eyes widened behind his glasses.

Part of him boggled at the transformation. Honestly, it was like someone had taken a weapon from RWBY and slapped some biological components on it so it would make even less sense.

The other part of him had but one thing to say.  _ ‘That’s a biiiiiig gun. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s a big “ _ fucking _ ” gun.’ _

When the process was completed, he was told to repeat it until he could perform the change at a speed that would make it worthwhile to switch mid-combat. Apparently, that meant a  _ split second _ , as some New-Type God Eaters were able to change forms immediately after a chain of attacks to follow up with heavy gunfire to gain some distance.

_ While in midair. _

…

Johan was getting the distinct feeling that he was going to be learning some Anime Shit in this training regimen (as though the absurd weaponry and ludicrous fashion hadn’t been enough of a clue).

It took several hours for him to get any sort of headway on that front, but eventually he'd managed to change forms comfortably in less than a second while in a prone position. He had a bit more difficulty doing the same right out of a swing, but his speed was considered passable enough to move on with his training, that being actually using his gun.

Firstly, the revolver chamber held energy tanks which powered the gun itself. Normally, these had to be replaced in order to reload the weapon, but the instructor explained that New-Type God Eaters had the advantage of being able to fill up those tanks on their own simply by slashing and striking at Aragami.

The fact that the God Arc could draw power from striking the very foe it was created to kill was a curiosity to Johan, and suggested...perhaps a link between the two? Humanity  _ was  _ rather fond of appropriation and turning an enemy’s tactics or ordinance against it, after all.

Whatever the case, he was here to learn to fight, not speculate on the nature of his weapon.

Apparently, installed within his weapons were ‘Bullet Chips’, which basically ran a macro that converted the energy of the tanks into the actual blast fired from his gun. For the purposes of his current training regime, they had loaded his God Arc with a ‘Shot’ Chip which was modified to act as a Mortar, a ‘Radial’ Chip, which was a flamethrower in all but name, and a ‘Laser’ Chip, which worked exactly as advertised.

He was drilled on gun safety, how to properly hold his God Arc for firing, how to keep track of his current ammo and after all that it was  _ strongly _ stressed that he was to avoid friendly fire. Once the more theoretical part of things was handled, he actually got to shoot at several projected targets at varying distances. It was a bit difficult to aim the large cannon with any sort of accuracy, especially with the insane recoil it had, but he could hit things semi-reliably at fifty meters away. It was considered ‘passable’, but he thought it was good considering he hadn't really tried any sort of activities which had him test his aim.

* * *

When Johan entered the God Arc storage room after the last of his courses, he came face to face with his advisor. She remained silent at his arrival, and continued to be so while he hung his weapon up on the large machine...but once he stepped back, she finally spoke up.

"Excellent work, Lewis," Amamiya said in a tone that, while still harsh, seemed a bit softer than it had been when she instructed him. "With all of your training finished, you are now a fully fledged God Eater."

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll be sure to put your lessons to good use.” Johan bowed his head slightly; it just seemed like the thing to do.

"See to it that you do," she replied curtly. "Now then, you will be holding the rank of Recruit until you complete enough missions to receive a promotion. Until then, you'll be taking Missions with the First Unit's Captain, Lindow Amamiya, and other Unit members."

Johan took note of the shared surnames, but kept his mouth shut. Tsubaki Amamiya frankly  _ terrified  _ him, and she didn’t strike him as the type of person to entertain questions of a personal nature. She probably considered them inefficient or a waste of time. However, he  _ was _ curious what would be expected of him should he climb the ranks beyond his current status, and asked as much.

"That will be entirely dependant on your rank and whether or not you decide to take on or are given Officer ranks," the woman answered. "I already explained what you will be doing as a Recruit. Once you reach Private rank, you will be assigned to a unit and expected to be capable of handling the missions you would have taken as a Recruit on your own, but will generally operate along with your comrades.

"You will not have any additional duties or be forced to take on more difficult missions while holding Private First Class or Sergeant ranks, but passivity and complacency will be looked down upon and make it impossible to rise.

"Once you reach Master Sergeant rank, your presence will be mandatory in certain high-profile missions. Aside from that, you will be able to take up Officer duties and ranks. Should you do so, you will still be expected to take missions unless you retire from active duty."

Tsubaki paused for a moment.

"Reaching the rank of Corporal is the highest achievement a God Eater may attain." Her voice was… _ different _ when she mentioned the rank. "Should you manage to get so far you will be required to engage with Deusphagi regardless of your Unit."

Johan didn’t know what ‘phagi’ meant, but anything with ‘Deus’ in its name was probably something  _ extremely  _ concerning. “The Deusphagi, ma’am? I know ‘Deus’ is Latin for ‘god’, but I’m unfamiliar with the rest of the name.”

The silence he was met with at his question had a great deal of weight to it.

"'Those who devour even the Gods'. It's not something you should worry about at the moment." The somber atmosphere only intensified at her words. "With any luck, you won't ever have to fight one."

Well, didn’t  _ that _ sound like something incredibly important and unbelievably dangerous. First Aragami and now something even worse?

‘ _ Fucking hell.’ _

He did his best to keep his discomfort off of his face, though he probably wasn’t completely successful. Even so, he nodded his understanding.

"In any case, tomorrow you'll take your first mission. The Captain will be briefing you tomorrow," Amamiya got the conversation back on track. "Head to the mess hall for dinner and then go straight to sleep. Report at the reception desk at 1000 hours."

The woman began to walk away from him and headed for the doors. "That will be all. Dismissed."

In spite of the concerning new information he’d been given, Johan didn’t let his mood get soured _ too _ much. After all, he hadn’t expected his training to go as smoothly as it did, but he’d managed what appeared to be above average results, and in a reasonable amount of time at that.

On the other hand, he  _ was  _ a bit disappointed that he hadn’t had time to really sit down and talk with Cedric or Kota, but he figured that getting himself in fighting shape was of utmost importance; you can’t socialize if you’re dead, after all.

Johan grimaced at the morbid thought. Dark humor had suddenly become much less appealing now that he was a soldier preparing to fight apocalypse monsters, especially now that he knew that there were also  _ super _ -apocalypse monsters waiting in the wings for when he, to borrow a term from his now lost normal life,  _ got gud _ .

He sighed wearily. He’d just have to get used to taking shit like this in stride, he supposed. Nobody with more than half a brain would expect the apocalypse to be  _ easy _ .


	7. Briefing: Devil's Tail

Johan arrived at the lounge on the lobby in good time, where he was told by Hibari to wait for Lindow to arrive. He was a little bit nervous about the mission, but he was also somewhat excited, in spite of himself. After all, at the end of the day he  _ had  _ been trained in the use of a ridiculous weapon straight out of an anime. What self-respecting weeb  _ wouldn’t _ be excited about that?

…

Yes, yes. Johan knew that “self-respecting weeb” was an oxymoron.  _ Nevertheless... _

After a small wait, the fresh God Eater Recruit could hear heavy footsteps on the stairs. Turning to face in that direction, he saw the man of the hour, who he had met once before when he first arrived at the Den.

He wasn't the only one to notice his approach, as Hibari turned to face him and spoke up. "Oh, Lindow! The Director said that if I saw you I should tell you to meet with him."

"Awesome!" the man replied before walking towards Johan. "Sounds like  _ you  _ didn't see me, then."

_ ‘Oh, I like him already.’ _

Once in front of the young man, the man stood with his hands on his hips, exuding confidence like some sort of comic-book hero.

"Oh ho! Hey there, rook!" he opened up their conversation cheerfully. "We've already met, but I'll introduce myself again. The name's Lindow Amamiya. According to various documents, I'm your superior officer."

The Captain gave a shrug. "...But I never paid much attention to that crap and neither should you," he added with a chuckle before pointing towards Johan's chest. "Endgame, I want  _ you _ to be someone who I know has my back while I have yours."

Johan nodded. “That sounds like something I can get behind.” He paused, cocked his head, then amended, “Well, I suppose we’d technically be getting behind  _ each-other _ , but that’s just semantics.”

"Good to know you're the cheerful type. We all know we could use more people like that these days." Lindow chuckled and shook his head. "I hope you're ready for my big, scary speech about our brutal rules, so keep your ears open, alright?"

Johan, an expression between  _ be _ musement and  _ a _ musement on his face, nodded gravely. “I’ll be sure to do so.”

"Right, so..." The Captain cleared his throat and rose a hand with three fingers up. "We have three big rules here."

The man left one finger in the air. "Rule number one: Don't die." He raised another. "Rule number two: If you're in danger, frikkin' run."

"And rule number 3: Hide...well not hide, use cover," Lindow finished while raising a third finger. "And always stick close to your teammates."

Johan nodded at each point, and when Lindow finished, he replied, “Understood. Short, simple and efficient. Just like Advisor Amamiya’s methods.”

The Captain flinched at the mention of her name and made a sound Johan couldn't hear before whispering to him, "Ok, I can see where you're coming from with that, but don't say it here, alright? Sis doesn't like it when people talk about her."

_ ‘I kinda got that impression, yeah,’ _ Johan deadpanned to himself.

The man ushered the rookie God Eater towards a blast door. Following along, the two walked to the other side, and when it was shut, Lindow spoke up again. "That being said, I'm  _ preeeeeetty _ sure you're not in her strike zone," the Captain said amusedly. "Kind of strange for the little brother to be the one saying this, but you've got no chance, kid. I'd give up if I were you."

Johan blinked, once, twice, then thrice, before letting out an incredulous chuckle. “You’ve got it all wrong. Your sister  _ terrifies  _ me.”

"I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of people are into that, but I'm just gonna keep quiet about that,” the man replied with a wide shit-eating grin.

Johan snorted, then shot back, “Don’t go putting your preferences on other people, now. I’m not one to take offense, but I’m not exactly what you’d call  _ typical _ .”

"Hey, I'll have you know my type is nowhere near close to that." The man rolled his eyes. "Man, mouthing off your superiors at the very start of your career. That'd go pretty well in your resume...if I cared enough to write it down."

Johan gave a smirk. “I  _ knew _ there was something about you that I liked...aside from the coat, of course.”

"It  _ is  _ a pretty nice coat. Maybe you'll get your own one of these days, yeah?" the Captain said amusedly. "Anyways, it's half-past mission here, so let's get down to business now."

The two God Eaters arrived at a room exactly like the one where he'd taken his God Arc from for every training session and returned it to when they were over, except this one had another set of blast doors at the other end of the room and several terminals instead of just the one.

"We're off to your first mission in a short while. How're you feeling about it?" Lindow asked as he nonchalantly approached one of the terminals.

“Jittery,” Johan began. “Nervous, but also... _ excited _ , I guess? I’m sure I’m not the  _ only  _ person who thinks that these God Arcs are pretty damn cool, am I? And I’d kinda like to get the chance to put my training to use, to actually  _ do _ something to make a difference. However small a difference that might be.”

"I get the feeling!" the Captain said with a chuckle as he inserted his bracelet onto the terminal. "Still remember how my first mission got me and it was pretty much that, I'll say."

The machinery shifted around with loud clicking noises after he took out the red manacle. "And yeah, you're not the only one who thinks God Arcs are amazing. It took me a while to get mine where it is now, but I gotta say..."

With one final resounding  _ clang, _ Lindow's weapon came into view.

"I'm pretty pleased with the results."

Johan let out a low whistle. “You should be! That thing suits you.”

What he was looking at wouldn't look too out of place in Warhammer 40k, he thought. It was an absolutely massive, red chainsaw sword. Three exhaust pipes sat at the tip of the machine, away from the long, jagged teeth of the God Arc. Every part of the machine looked rough and held some scratches here and there, but it looked like it was perfectly maintained, properly oiled and ready to be taken to the field. The only parts looking  _ slightly  _ worse for wear were the plates which comprised the shield, but it made sense for them to be covered in long gashes and tears.

Aside from the fact that it was a chainsaw instead of a huge knife, Johan noted another key difference between his own God Arc and Lindow's; the part where the cannon was in his own God Arc was occupied by a black block with several vertical stripes on the Captain's, with no visible way to distinguish it as anything resembling a gun of any kind.

"It sure does," the man said while grasping the large chainsword. "Hey there, pal. Ready for another mission?"

The God Arc did not react in any way, shape or form, but Lindow chuckled all the same. "Come on, rook. Get your Arc ready, we'll be going right away."

Johan snapped a sloppy salute, offering a nonchalant “Yessir,” before doing as he was instructed.

* * *

The two reached a parking lot with many identical vehicles. They all looked like Jeeps, but seemed bulkier and had specialized equipment installed on them.

Putting their God Arcs in a large cylinder with several slots in one of the cars, they covered it up with a tarp and got in, Lindow taking the driver's seat at the right side while Johan took shotgun.

On the way to the mission, the Recruit managed to take a good look at the entirety of the place he'd found himself in. The Den was a towering bunker the size of a small skyscraper, but it was slightly wider and longer than it was tall, almost like a gigantic rectangle that was almost a cube.

Around the Far East Branch proper were several other buildings, all in pristine condition. All in all, it looked almost like a normal, bustling city, aside from the general lack of cars that allowed them to move along undisturbed for the most part.

However, as they moved away from the metropolis, they eventually reached a part where there was a clear divide between what seemed to be recently built and the ruins of the ghetto where he had woken up. Buildings were broken and battered and the road was far more uneven and rough.

Now without obstructions in his line of sight, he could see a wall far away. It was so large that Johan’s first thought was,  _ ‘Oh shit; when can I expect the Titans to show up.’ _ His second was just as snarky.

_ ‘Trump would be proud.’ _

The further away they got from the heart of Fenrir in the Far East, the worse the buildings got, until there were no more. The rest of the trip to the edge of the walls, the ground was completely barren save for the occasional bush and patch of dry grass here and there.

When they arrived, they passed through what could only be described as a shanty town. If the ghetto was in deplorable condition, that place was worse. Most of the houses there were shoddily made with metal and polycarbonate sheets, and a good amount of them were completely wrecked and torn down to their very foundations. It was a horrible sight, but their stay at the place was short lived and Johan didn't manage to spot anyone there before they reached a gate. Lindow checked in with a few Fenrir guards before the two of them were allowed out.

Once beyond the walls, Johan saw a barren wasteland. There was nothing of interest he could see for miles on end. A few hills, but nothing besides over the horizon. Their trip was silent for a long while, but a few minutes later, Lindow spoke up.

"Alright Rookie, time for the briefing," the Captain said in a laid back tone while leisurely driving with one hand. "This mission's name is 'Devil's Tail', and any reports you need to make about it will need to use that name, got it?"

“Understood. ‘Devil’s Tail.’ Don’t suppose the mission has anything to do with Ogretails, does it?”

"Nailed it in one!" Lindow barked. "Yeah, we'll be fighting little Ogretails today. Should be a pretty basic hunt. Nothing crazy or unexpected, fingers crossed."

Johan made a face. “Yeah, let’s hope so. I’m not too keen on going out for a routine mission and then having to fight some kind of god-smashing monstrosity the size of a building or something.”

The Captain laughed at his remark.

"No worries about that. If there was an Aragami of that size anywhere close to the mission area, the operators would have told me about it," the man placated him before asking him expectantly. "And if for some insane reason we see something like that, what do we do?"

“Fucking run, right?” Johan replied.

"Yep, good to know you've got our oh so important rules memorized." Lindow chuckled. "Anyways, the mission will be taking place in an area we've taken to calling the City of Mercy. It's got lots of ruined skyscrapers, a wrecked church...all the marks of a wonderful tourist location, wouldn't you say? It's also where that recruitment commercial got shot, 'The Call for God Eaters' or something like that? You seen it?"

Johan nodded. “I have. A bit over the top and hammy, but it got the message across well enough. City looked like a nuclear wasteland, though.”

"Not exactly how I'd describe it...the city, that is," he replied with a shrug. "It would have been completely leveled if that was the case."

The man scratched his chin. "Anyways. It should be a fairly simple mission, but just stick to our three rules. I know this is your first time out on the field, but just remember to stay calm and trust your instincts and training, got it?"

Johan nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

He was more than a bit nervous, truth be told; he could feel his heart pounding in his chest like a drum. But he knew he could do this. He  _ had _ to be able to do this.

* * *

The God Eaters eventually arrived on site. They dropped off the car a little bit away from the city proper. As they approached the area, Lindow handed him a small earbud with a button at the back and a hook to hang it around his ear, as well as a black pin.

"Here, take these," he said. "Set the pin on the collar of your uniform; it's a mic. We'll keep in contact with each other and the Den with this."

Johan did as he was told, nodding seriously to Lindow. Joking around was all well and good when they were safe, but in the field he’d restrain himself a bit.

"Alright…quick note: whenever you want to speak, push the button on the earbud to activate the mic. It'll deactivate when you push it again, got it?" The Captain set up his own mic and pushed the button. "HQ, do you read us? Testing, testing."

"This is HQ, Captain Lindow," Johan heard Hibari's voice respond. "We read you loud and clear."

"Alright, good. And you, rook?" the Captain asked him, his voice coming through clearly.

“Read you loud and clear, sir,” Johan replied.

Lindow nodded at his response.

"Hey there, Johan,” came the voice from his mic. “This will be our first Field Op together. I'm pleased to work with you. Let's all do our best, alright?"

“Will do. I’ll be counting on you, Hibari,” Johan replied.

"Ok, since everything's in working order..." Lindow said while stretching a bit. "Where's our date for today Hibari?"

"I've confirmed the Oracle response of the Ogretails one click away from you," the Operator supplied with a small pause. "There's nothing else in the area, all clear!"

"This should be a nice, leisurely hunt then!" the Captain exclaimed. "Let's get going then; I'll take point. Johan, you switch to Gun mode. What bullets are you loaded up with?"

“Blaze Shot, Hellfire Mortar and Hellfire Radial,” Johan recited. The names were edgy, but as an edgelord himself, he couldn’t say he hated it.

"That'll do. Set up the Shot and Radial to fire when needed," he ordered. "If you see anything, hold your fire unless it's too close or it's clearly coming for us. Be sure to shout 'contact' before firing."

Johan switched around the firing chips as he was instructed, before nodding to Lindow and saying, “Understood. Anything else I should know for this engagement?”

"Nothing in particular comes to mind. Just do your best and don't worry. I'll back you up and draw their attention if you need some space or get in trouble," the man said with a nod. "Anyways. Let's start the mission! Hibari, lead us there!"

"Understood!" the woman replied. "Beginning Mission: Devil's Tail!"


	8. Devil's Tail

Thanks to Hibari's directions, their advance through the city was swift and without any sort of trouble along the way. The most noteworthy thing that happened was when she informed them that the Ogretails had begun to move, but came to a halt shortly after. The pack was still fairly close to their location after they relocated.

"Wait, the area further up is completely clear of buildings, right?" Lindow asked, stopping in his tracks and motioning for Johan to do the same.

"Yes, you're approaching the church," Hibari replied. "The Ogretails should be on the other side, though."

"Well..." The Captain contemplated the situation for a little while. "What are your thoughts, rookie? If we move into the next area, we won't need to worry about being spotted until we circle around the church that's smack dab in the middle of it. Do we go for it right away?"

Johan put a hand to his chin in thought. “Since there aren’t any civilians out here, we’ve got the time to approach this cautiously, and if we pull it off, we could end up killing at least a few before they notice us. There’s no sense in rushing in recklessly here; I think that stealth’s the way to go.”

"Good answer," he replied with a grin. "And how would you go about approaching this cautiously?"

Johan hummed thoughtfully. “How intact is the church? If it’s in good condition, we might be able to use it as a more controlled battlefield, lure them in and bottleneck them…”

The Captain considered the question for a moment before answering. "The entrance proper is wrecked, there's...three points of entry in the form of holes in the walls, two at the sides and one at the back. When we enter the area, we'll be facing its side, but the doorway leading into the main room of the church from the entrance we'll see is collapsed, and meanwhile, the one on the other side is where the Ogretails are."

"That leaves us with only one entrance, and that one runs the risk of exposing us to the Ogretails before we even get in," Lindow finished his explanation. "It's not a bad plan, but it's not applicable as is."

Johan nodded, then voiced another question. “Do we know how many Ogretails we’re looking at, or at least an estimate?”

"Five in total, with one larger than the rest," Hibari answered immediately. "I can't see any Oracle responses away from them, so you don't need to worry about stragglers who aren't next to the group."

“Hmm. In that case...you said we should be able to circle around so that we’d be at their backs, correct?” Johan asked.

"No, we can't tell the exact way they're facing, just that they're on the other side of the church." Hibari explained.

“Alright,” Johan said. “Considering what we know, it’d probably be best to circle around the side of the Church as stealthily as we can. I’ll keep my God Arc in gun mode, so I can provide cover or suppressing fire.” He crouched down and doodled a crude diagram in the dirt as he spoke.

“When we get to the corner of the church, we’ll want to look around the side to see if they’re facing us. If they are, I can try and blind them with a mortar while you go in for a quick strike. If they  _ aren’t _ facing us, we can try and get a couple of them in the cores before they can react.”

Lindow nodded, before interjecting, "Well, could do that... _ oooor _ we could climb to the top of the church or go in some buildings to try and spot them beforehand."

Johan blinked, then palmed his face.  _ “Knew _ I was overlooking something,” he muttered sheepishly.

The other God Eater laughed. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it and come up with plans quicker. The more missions you take, the easier it'll be. You'll see."

“Practice makes perfect, eh?” Johan replied, half to Lindow, half to himself.

"That's about right, yeah," Lindow answered with a shrug. "Anyways, time's a wastin'. Follow me."

With that, the two moved into the area, sunlight beating down harshly on the dirt below their feet.

Johan spotted the church instantly, and took in whatever details he could see. On the side, there was some sort of extension of the building, slightly shorter than the structure and with a large hole on it. The rooftop of that extension and the church itself were completely flat. He could see some massive steel beams on a small path at the right.

Meanwhile, to the left was a sight he'd seen before but not in person. The ground simply  _ ended  _ a bit away from the church, revealing them to be at the edge of a cliff. On the horizon he could see countless buildings and skyscrapers, all of them with massive, perfectly circular holes bored into them. Johan recognized them from the propaganda video he’d seen the day he’d first woken up in this world.

"Lovely sight, huh?" Lindow said jokingly, then shook his head. "Let's go."

As the two approached the church, the Captain spoke again, slightly quieter than before. "Just so you know, Ogretails don't exactly have keen eyesight or hearing. You shouldn't worry too much about making noise, but try not to do that. When we begin fighting, take them out one by one, but try not to get swarmed."

“Got it,” Johan affirmed, then asked, “Any other advice? I know that they have that tail spike attack they do, and that weird jump, but are there any more attack patterns they favor?”

"They bite. A lot," he answered. "And they swing their tails around to hit people. They're also prone to tackle you and try to pin you down. They're not exactly the scariest Aragami out there, so aside from what you know, you don't need to watch out for much."

Though internally sceptical (he was going up against apocalypse monsters; he’d think paranoia was the name of the game), he decided to trust Lindow’s experience.

…

He’d still probably be antsy, though. He always had been a worrier, and his overactive imagination certainly didn’t help that.

When they were next to the wall of the church, Lindow appraised it for a little while before pointing at specific points that they could use to climb. After a bit of messing around and testing the spots, the Captain and Johan made their way to the rooftop – and once there, they spotted their prey.

As Hibari had said, there were five Ogretails. He couldn't accurately gauge their size relative to the simulated ones, but they didn't seem particularly different, aside from a single Ogretail that was larger than the rest and whose body was marked by several scars. A few of its fangs were chipped and cracked.

The group was currently feeding on...something. He couldn't tell just what it was, they were too close together, blocking his view. Fortunately, none of them were facing their way either.

"Alright, rook. Here's the plan: switch your Shot for the Mortar, then at my signal, fire. Keep doing it until they scatter or you run out of ammo. When either happens, we move in for the kill," Lindow ordered quietly. "The big guy is the leader of the pack, no doubt about it. Focus fire on him; if he isn't dead by the time we advance, leave him to me. Understood?"

Johan hefted his God Arc, swapped his Bullet Chips as instructed, and gave a firm nod. “Crystal clear, sir.”

The God Eater raised a hand, preparing to give his order. The Ogretails seemed to be about done with their meal and raised their heads.

The Captain's hand remained in the air as they moved, even as the remains of what they ate came into view. They were rags of some sort, colored dark red with some bright spots of pink.

Johan felt his stomach turn, but he wasn’t surprised. What else could they have been eating out in this wasteland but people? It didn’t seem like there was an overabundance of wildlife, that was for damn sure. He swallowed his gorge and kept his weapon trained on the cluster of monsters.

The Captain clenched his hand into a fist, and Johan saw the way it shook in what could only be cold rage. Even so, the hand remained in the air, ready to be swung down at a moment’s notice.

The Ogretails kept moving, the four smaller ones surrounding their leader. They approached a building, a large opening in view. The large one stopped and let out a growl before roaring.

Over the sound, Johan could hear a scream.

"DAMN IT!" the Captain howled as his hand went down. "FIRE!"

His blood having turned to ice at the sound of the scream, Johan opened fire not a second later.  _ ‘I thought this place was supposed to be clear of civilians!’ _ he thought desperately.

Just as the shot left the barrel, the Ogretails turned to face them. By the time it landed, Lindow was already off the roof.

The shot wasn’t a direct hit on the leader, but it managed to land on one of the monsters and threw it off its feet. The rest were quick to react, and immediately scattered. Two of them charged towards Lindow, while the leader and the last one moved into the building.

_ "Oh no you don't!"  _ Lindow ran at incredible speed and was soon upon the Ogretails that approached him. Before either of them could react, he kicked off the ground, going over them with a single bound.

"Take care of these ones!" he yelled at Johan before disappearing into the building, the sonorous revving of his chainsword echoing in the distance.

After firing off another mortar at the two Ogretails, Johan triggered his God Arc’s transformation and followed Lindow’s example. His heart was in his throat, but whether that was from the impending combat, the fall, or worry for the civilian, he had no clue.

But that didn’t matter right now. He needed to kill those Aragami.

The shot slammed into one of the Ogretails, sending it reeling back, while the other was far enough away from its companion to go unaffected. Johan took note of the his shot’s results as his feet struck the ground, the ground visibly indenting beneath him. His knees bent reflexively to absorb some of the impact, then straightened in an instant as he pushed off, no doubt further damaging the poor, abused concrete.

The Ogretail he’d shot growled in pain, holding back while the other leapt forward, landing only a few feet away from Johan and rearing its head back with its toothy maw open wide.

Johan strafed left, losing speed but now approaching from an angle that wasn’t  _ nearly _ as hazardous to his health. As the monster bit down on empty air, he leapt skyward, bringing his God Arc up and around in an overhead slash at the back of the monster’s neck.

The Ogretail reacted to the motion immediately, withdrawing its head as fast as it could. The movement was such that its mask hooked onto the blade at an angle before the God Arc cleaved through it, tearing a small chunk of the Aragami's forehead off. Johan caught a glimpse of ichorous red and black goo beginning to leak from the injury and spilling onto the ground as he completed the maneuver, then refocussed on the creature as a whole once he was on the ground once again.

Not wasting any time, Johan spun with the backswing and moved forward, this time aiming his strike at the beast’s ankle. The monster let out a roar of pain when the blade struck true, but unlike the simulations, the massive weapon got stuck midway through the limb, the vibrations of the impact running up Johan’s arm.

The beast swung its tail back, before wrenching its leg off the blade – and with a mighty bellow, it spun on its good foot to bring the natural weapon spinning around toward Johan.

As he took a step back from the Ogretail, the rookie God Eater triggered the shield on his weapon and interposed it between himself and the Aragami, bracing it as quickly as he could, but not managing to take a proper stance before the bulky tail impacted against it.

Johan was thrown off balance by the attack and landed on the floor, while the attacking Aragami fell down, unable to support itself on one limb. Before he could get any rest, the other Ogretail roared.

"Johan, move!" he heard Hibari yell over comms as the monster began to approach.

Johan scrambled to his feet, planted them as firmly as he could in that moment before lifting up his shield, barely catching the massive fangs of the Ogretail, who bit down on it harshly.

_ ‘God, I hope that other fucker doesn’t get back up any time soon!’ _

"Switch your God Arc to shake it off!" Hibari desperately instructed him. "Hurry, before the other one gets on his feet!"

With a single frantic thought, his weapon was morphing. A horrid sound of tearing sinew and cracking bone came from the creature’s mouth as the transformation forcibly tore its grip from the shield, and as it staggered back Johan saw its jaw hang limply, swinging from side to side.

"Use the Radial! Finish it off!" Hibari yelled.

Johan depressed the second trigger on his God Arc, unleashing a gout of flame on the injured Aragami. As the inferno poured over its face, it let loose its loudest roar yet, the sound ringing in Johan’s ears..for a few seconds. It petered off as the stream continued to flow, until the monster dropped down to the ground, twitching and spasming in silent pain while it burned.

Johan looked between the two prone Aragami, then scanned the nearby area for the third.

"The third one just ran away." Hibari quickly spoke up. "Focus on these two, Johan!"

In the time it took him to register her words, the Ogretail he'd slashed at got on its feet and growled. The wounded area looked worse for the wear, but it didn't seem to favor its good leg as much as he'd have expected it to.

At the sound of its growl he spun and pressed the trigger to fire his Radial again, flames spewing from his God Arc at the beast’s face. However, with a quick hop, the monster leapt backward out of range and raised its tail.

Johan tensed, ready to move and dodge the spikes he knew were coming, even as he mentally instructed his God Arc to change back into a blade. Strangely, the Ogretail did not attack and simply kept its tail up in the air.

Johan frowned. What was it  _ doing? _ Raising his blade, he darted forward. At that moment, he stopped hearing the wailing of the other Ogretail, while the first one launched its spikes his way. He strafed to the left, losing some momentum but still moving towards the Aragami at a quick pace. One of the spikes came dangerously close to his face, making him flinch slightly. That was all the time the Ogretail needed to swing its tail at Johan once again, aiming high towards his head.

Not quite throwing himself to the ground, he ducked under the swing, feeling the woosh of air right above him. He responded in kind, lashing out with a swift thrust towards the underside of the Ogretail’s throat.

Either because of the fur, the awkward angle or the lack of speed, the blade didn't make it very far. Even so, it still made the Ogretail roar in pain, quickly responding by using its bulky leg to kick Johan, the clawed feet landing harshly on his stomach and sending him rolling, his God Arc thankfully coming loose from the beast rather than remaining lodged.

Johan stumbled to his feet; thankfully he hadn't been gouged by the claws and only had the wind knocked out of him slightly. The Ogretail was also recovering, taking hoarse breaths out of its mouth.

Johan took a second to refill his lungs before darting in again, lower to the ground and blade trailing behind him in preparation for a slash. The monster charged him once more, maw yawning open and ready to chomp on him. Johan  _ heaved _ his God Arc around, the edge arcing horizontally towards his foe’s gaping mouth, right towards the hinges of its jaw.

Fangs met steel immediately, the long sabretooths barring the path of his weapon...and finding themselves  _ utterly _ insufficient. The nightmares of dentistry were cleaved in half, and the Aragami retaliated by shutting its mouth around Johan’s God Arc, the Aragami struggling to keep it from moving further.

_ ‘Well, it worked last time…’ _ Johan triggered his weapon’s transformation again, knocking a few more of the beast's teeth out in the process. As soon as the God Arc was done shifting, he fired again, and this time his Radial was point-blank.

The stream of fire instantly burned out the Aragami's left eye and set a portion of its mane on fire, but he wasn't able to continue firing as the weapon ran out of energy.

The monster, now on fire, missing an eye, and absolutely furious, turned to face him and roared in front of his face.

Blinking rapidly to clear his eyes of monster spittle, Johan once more triggered his God Arc’s transformation, leaping backwards with all the force of his enhanced legs as he did so. Once his feet touched ground once more, he set himself into a proper stance, blade raised between the Ogretail and himself.

The monster charged once more, repeating the previous motion far more wildly than the last time, intent on killing him as soon as possible.

Johan waited until the last possible moment before darting to its left side, bringing his God Arc down in an overhead stroke towards the back of its neck.

The impact sent vibrations down his arms as he heard a cracking noise, his blade landing right on the Core. The Ogretail tried to turn its neck to face him but only managed to hurt itself more, as it wailed in pain, writhing around uncomfortably.

Not missing a beat, Johan pressed harder on his weapon, pulling on it simultaneously like he would a saw. As the blade slid, a screeching noise rang out in his ears. Withdrawing the blade completely, the Ogretail fell limply on the ground.

Johan stared at the prone Aragami, then when it became clear it wasn’t getting back up, glanced back over to where the one he’d burned had been laying. The fire had been put out and the monster laid motionless on the floor, completely charred.

"Don't let it fool you, Johan. It's still alive." Hibari noted over comms. "It's just waiting for you to leave before making a break for it."

“Understood,” he replied, before hefting his God Arc and approaching the Ogretail that was playing possum. As he drew nearer, he made sure to stay at an angle such that he’d have plenty of warning if it decided to attack.

Fortunately, it did not do anything even as he positioned himself to strike at the core. Once closer, he did manage to see that it still breathed, just as slowly as possible to prevent him from finding out.

If the Ogretail hadn’t been a gigantic apocalypse monster that had tried to eat him, he might have felt a bit of pity for its situation...but as he brought his blade down, all he felt was disgust at the scent of burnt hair and flesh.

With a loud shattering noise, the second Ogretail died, and silence fell over the area for a few seconds.

"All Ogretails except the one which escaped have been eliminated," Hibari spoke up with a somewhat sombre tone.

Right on cue, Johan heard a loud noise and turned to see Lindow, crouching down on the cracked floor, covered in black and red goo.

"Yeah. We should probably go handle that one," he said in a humorless tone. "How close is it?"

"It's hiding pretty close by; you should be able to reach it quickly enough," the operator responded.

The Captain gave a grunt and began to move, motioning Johan to follow along.

Johan fell into step just behind Lindow, a troubled look on his face. Part of him wanted to ask what had happened to the person who’d screamed, but the rest of him already knew the answer. He kept silent and followed the Captain’s lead.

The two men walked on, silently following Hibari's directions.

* * *

The two had managed to find the other Ogretail quickly enough. It tried to ambush them, but was quickly acquainted with the back of Lindow's God Arc, throwing it back several meters. Lindow decided to let Johan have this last one.

The battle did not last for terribly long, but it was still somewhat of a struggle. Even so, he secured the kill without suffering any wounds. The Captain nodded approvingly at Johan's way of fighting before the two of them went on their way, the mission finally over.

The way back was silent for the most part, even more so than the trip towards the mission area. The reason was more than obvious. By the time the two began to approach the city's walls, the sun had already begun to set.

"Sometimes...there's people living outside the walls," Lindow mentioned. "It's not exactly common to see them, but they're somewhere out there."

The older man shook his head, digging into his coat and taking out a pack of cigarettes with one hand, moving it Johan's way. "Light me?"

Johan glanced over, and noticed that the dashboard had one of those old-fashioned cigarette lighters. He wordlessly did as he was requested before passing the now-lit cancer-stick back to Lindow.

The Captain nodded his thanks before putting it in his mouth. He took a long drag before exhaling the smoke out the window. "She lived," the man noted with an aloof expression. "I managed to get to her in time. You looked like you wanted to know what happened, but didn't ask."

Johan exhaled, a weight lifting from his chest. “It didn’t seem like the right time to ask, out in the field, and after that I guess I assumed the worst.” He gave a faint smile. “It’s good that you were able to get there in time.”

Lindow frowned a little at his words. "Assuming the worst isn't healthy. Trust me on that."

Putting the cigarette on his mouth once more, he continued. "That aside, it's not like it did any good. She's still out there, after all," he said. "We were on time for her. But not for everyone else."

Johan leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling. “When I was younger,” he said, “I learned a hard lesson; that none of us can do everything, can help everyone. We’ve just gotta do what we can, and hope that, at the end of the day, we made some small difference in the right direction.” He shrugged. “It’s cliché, I know, but it gets me through the day.”

Lindow's expression was completely unreadable, the fringe of his hair hiding his face from Johan.

"You know? That's pretty cold," he replied. "Worst thing is, I can't blame you for going with that in this crazy world."

The Captain shook his head once again, without any further words.

Johan hummed noncommittally and left the man to his thoughts.

And like that, the conversation was over. The two God Eaters silently made their way back to the Den.


	9. Questions, Answers and Wonders

The next day, Hibari informed him that he wasn't scheduled to take any missions and he'd have the day for himself. However, before he could do whatever he pleased, he was required to take a mandatory lecture from Doctor Sakaki along with Kota. When asked about the specific topic, she replied that she wasn't too sure, as the Doctor tended to teach whatever he pleased, but mentioned that it'd definitely pertain to the Aragami in some way.

“Alright. Hopefully I’ll learn something,” he’d replied, then thanked Hibari, both for informing him about the lecture and for her guidance on the mission.

The lecture was going to take place in the Doctor's laboratory, the same one Johan had taken his examination in. Wanting to avoid running late, he headed there immediately.

When he stepped in, he found himself facing the Doctor, who was out of his nest of monitors and computers, pushing up his glasses. Kota sat comfortably in a couch to his left and raised a hand in greeting.

"Ah, there you are!" the Doctor said with a smile. "Please, take a seat! Make yourself comfortable."

Johan did as he was instructed, giving Kota (who was once more dressed as a Final Fantasy protagonist) a nod and plopping down on the couch beside him. He looked at Doctor Sakaki expectantly.

"Well now, we've got a lot of ground to cover," he began with a nod. "So what do you say we jump right in? Since you two have just recently joined, it might be best to start from the beginning."

The man raised a hand to his chin and extended his other towards the two rookies. "So, what do you think an Aragami  _ is?" _

Johan hummed in thought. “A creature made of unconventional cells that make the use of God Arcs necessary to slay them. Beyond that, they’re ugly as sin and seem to have put humanity in...let’s say an  _ unfavorable  _ position.”

"That is a fairly quick summation, I suppose." The Doctor shook his head slightly while keeping his affable smile. "However, today it might be better if we strived to find a deeper answer. Tell me, have you ever wondered from whence the Aragami came?"

Well, wasn’t  _ that _ a question. Of course Johan had; why  _ wouldn’t  _ he want to know where a living apocalypse came from? So far, his guesses were aliens, humans waking up That Which Man Was Not Meant To Know, or a country deciding to make a bioweapon and it going  _ horribly  _ wrong.

But hey. He wasn’t a scientist, so his guesses had about as much backing evidence as Tsubaki Amamiya had chill; which is to say, none.

"By your expressions, I can tell you're curious and so, let me tell you..."

The man approached and leaned down, his face somewhat close to the two. He kept quiet for a while, letting the tension build up. Kota seemed to be growing uncomfortable. Johan, on the other hand, struggled to contain a chuckle at the other boy’s discomfort.

"We don't actually know!" Paylor announced cheerfully, almost as if a fanfare would play at his words.

Taking a normal position once more, he paced around the room.

"History books tell us that they just...appeared," the man continued with a chuckle. "As through from the air itself. Since then, their numbers exploded. Why, within a single year, they overran the entirety of the American continent!

"Strange, isn't it?" he rambled on. "Just how did they manage to do that? Expanding at such speeds was something completely unheard of! The Aragami just seemed to rip through every single fundamental principle of the evolutionary process!"

While the man kept on talking, Kota let out a small yawn and inched closer to Johan, nudging him with his elbow. "Hey, you think this lecture has an intermission?  _ Or a point?" _ the ridiculously dressed rookie asked him in a whisper. "Our job's to kill 'em, so does this whole thing matter?"

Johan frowned. “I’d say so,” he whispered back. “Aside from the fact that if we know more about them we can kill them more efficiently, isn’t the hope that we can take back the world completely? If we don’t know where they came from, what they are, then...well, they could come right back? As the saying goes, ‘knowledge is power’.”

"Quite so," the Doctor interjected, standing only a few inches away from the two God Eaters and spooking Kota. Johan was surprised he didn't even notice him approach, jumping slightly.

"Aragami have no brain," the Doctor said while knocking lightly on Kota's head. "Nor do they have a heart, a digestive system, or even spinal fluids!"

Taking a step back, the man put a hand on his chin while holding his elbow. "Frail humans that we are, a powerful strike to the chest would cripple or kill us. But would that bring down an Aragami? No, not even once.

"As Johan mentioned, the Aragami are formed of special cells unlike any other seen on Earth, named Oracle Cells," Doctor Sakaki said while turning and moving back to the center of the room. "Each cell is an organism of its own. An Aragami, then, is a creature composed of hundreds of thousands, millions and  _ billions  _ of single-cell organisms, each with the single-minded purpose of 'Devouring.'

"And this dangerous, deadly, elegant fusion of cells...cannot be harmed with conventional weaponry. They are impervious to all assault. Stabbing, crushing, impaling, burning, slashing, shooting?" He shook his head with his back to them. "None of it worked. None of it, I say!"

Turning back to face them, he posed a question. "So...how then are we meant to survive? How are you people supposed to fight such a powerful predator?"

Johan offered, “Through unconventional means, presumably. If I had to guess...do God Arcs harness Oracle Cells themselves?”

"Why yes!" the Doctor confirmed his suspicions. "God Arcs are the only weapon able to wound the Aragami; a biological weapon comprised of the very same cells that the Aragami are made up of. They are, in essence, an Aragami themselves!"

Johan frowned. “Then what’s stopping them from ‘devouring’ us themselves? I assume that there’s  _ something  _ doing so, or the weapons would hardly be worth the risk.”

"Why, that would be thanks to the Bias Factor," he answered. "You see, Oracle Cells are capable of devouring anything and everything known to man. There are no exceptions. None whatsoever. Concrete? It is as bread to them. Glass? Mmmh! Crunchy! Acid? Why I'm sure they were just  _ parched.  _ Nuclear Waste? Why yes, thank you for the meal!

"However...While Aragami are  _ able  _ to devour everything, that does not mean they  _ will _ ," Doctor Sakaki continued mirthfully. "They have a certain inclination not to eat certain things. That is what is known as 'Bias'. By researching this phenomenon, we managed to recreate it and create Bias Factor. Materials embedded with it will have a certain resistance to Aragami attacks.

"Several strains of Bias Factor have been developed, but only one has been deemed safe for human use and is currently circulating inside your bodies." The man crossed his arms. "That being the P53 Bias Factor."

“Is there any significance to that designation?” Johan asked curiously.

"Not much beyond identification. In any case, you will have to receive periodical injections of Bias Factor..." Sakaki replied before pointing at the manacle in Johan's hand. "Through  _ that _ , the P53 Armed Implant. I'm sure you have your grievances with the design and the fact that it is now fused to your arm, but that is simply the way of things I'm afraid."

Johan blinked, momentarily nonplussed at the revelation.  _ ‘Well, if it keeps me alive, then I can deal.’ _

"In any case, I think we've gone off on this tangent for long enough...where were we?" The Doctor scratched his cheek before snapping his fingers. "Ah yes, the God Arcs. They are the only weapon capable of cutting through the ever-fusing Oracle Cells."

The man then gestured at them. "But is this enough to kill the Aragami? Is slashing and shooting at them with your God Arcs enough to kill them?"

“I’m going to guess the answer is ‘no’, considering the emphasis Instructor Amamiya put on the Aragami’s Core,” Johan remarked wryly.

"Indeed." The man nodded. "Just cutting them down won't do. The cells will simply grow and heal! There is only one way to take down an Aragami for good:  _ tearing out the Core. _ "

Johan blinked. “So the destruction of the Core isn’t good enough either?”

"I'm afraid not," the man said. "What I said applies for the Cores too. Destroying one isn't guaranteed to destroy an Aragami. Since they work as the central control center for the rest of the Cells in an Aragami, destroying the Core simply makes the Cells lose cohesion. However, given enough time, the entire thing will reform as if nothing had happened, or even worse, the shards of the Core will regenerate into their own separate Cores, effectively making the Aragami undergo mitosis and creating two of the same kind."

Johan paled.  _ “Fucking hell,” _ he swore in a voice barely above a whisper. These things were an unholy fusion of the most dangerous aspects of a grey goo scenario and a fucking Hydra! What’s more, he’d (albeit in a small way) contributed to their growth!

The man approached Johan and stood in front of him for a few seconds, before flicking him in the forehead. "Language, young Johan.  _ Language, _ " the eccentric said while retreating.

Johan rubbed his forehead, a sheepish look on his face. “Sorry. Just wasn’t expecting to find out I made the problem  _ worse _ on my first mission.”

"The odds of mitosis occurring are not even around fifty percent, but your reaction is not unwarranted, I suppose," Doctor Sakaki added while shaking his head, his smile faltering a little bit. "Indeed, the only way to take down an Aragami for certain is by extracting their Core...but the reality is, we can't do that for each and every single one of them. It'd be a logistical nightmare, and for that reason, standard procedure is to destroy the Core unless strictly necessary and possible.

"Even with God Arcs, we have no way to deliver a decisive blow," the Doctor continued. "At some point, people recognized in these monsters, in their immortality, the spirits of the many Gods once worshiped here. They deemed these creatures 'Aragami', and to this very day, we fight them still."

Silence washed over the laboratory. The only thing that could be heard was the low humming of the Doctor's computers. On that particularly bitter note, the lecture came to an end.

* * *

"Wow...well, that was something," Kota said as he boarded the elevator with Johan.

“You’ve got a talent for understatement, my dude,” Johan replied dryly.

"I mean...like, for real? It makes it seem like we're not actually doing anything in the long run!" the boy exclaimed. "That sucks!"

Johan nodded. “It does. But doing nothing would be worse, I think. At least this way I can say I  _ tried _ to make a difference.”

"I mean, sure. But trying and actually  _ making  _ a difference aren't the same thing; no one cares if you did your best if it was all for nothing."

The youth let out a breath and shook his head. "Well, at least we have Aegis, so at least we know we're doing something," he added.

Johan offered a nod, though something about that Aegis plan had him feeling...troubled. It was probably nothing, just the paranoia and overactive imagination of an ex-writer thinking too hard about literary tropes, but still. The uneasy feeling remained.

"Now that I think about it...have you seen Aegis from the rooftop?" Kota asked.

“I haven’t,” Johan replied. “I’m guessing you want to show me?”

"I haven't either, but I heard from some guys that you can see it from there, actually!" he answered. “I'm guessing we could go there and sneak a peek. You in?"

Johan looked over at Kota. “That depends. Are we actually  _ allowed  _ on the roof?”

"We are! I'm pretty sure of it!" he answered before turning to him with crossed arms. "What, you think I'd rope you in to do something we're not supposed to do? Is that really how you see me?"

Johan smirked, affecting a snooty tone. “Well, it wouldn’t be out of character for the ‘high and mighty noble’ to toy with a plebeian such as myself and draw joy from his suffering.”

"I resent that statement, you ingrate," the other rookie replied with a dry tone. "I deign to grace you with my presence and this is how you repay me? How ungrateful can you possibly be?" He chuckled right after. "But yeah, you up for it?"

Johan shrugged. “Why not? Not like I’ve got plans. Lead the way, O’ Most Glorious and Radiant One.”

The two laughed as they went up as high as they could.

* * *

After a bit of walking around and trying to find their way to the rooftop, the two God Eater rookies eventually found themselves at their destination. The place seemed to be home to a flock of massive helicopters, each one perfectly spaced away from the others by a considerable distance. There were more than a few unoccupied spaces, clearly in use away from the Den.

After glancing around for a while, Kota stopped and exclaimed out loud. "Over there! Come on!"

The youth ran off closer to the edge of the building, which was nevertheless still safe thanks to the railings all around.

Johan rolled his eyes and followed at a more sedate pace, a fond smile on his face at the excitable young man’s antics. Kota really did remind him of an old friend of his...

When he arrived at the edge, he could see the deserted landscape stretch on for miles, but it eventually came to an end and gave way to the sea. There, far off on the distance, he could see a strange dome of some sort. He couldn't really distinguish more about its features, but judging how it was visible from such a distance, he could tell it was definitely  _ huge.  _ Perhaps even greater in size than the entire Far East Branch.

Johan let out a low whistle. “That’s a big building,” he commented redundantly, then looked over to Kota to see what his reaction had been.

There was a strange glint in Kota's eye. A sense of wonderment like that of a child watching a magic trick for the first time, like seeing a work of art in person for the first time in one's life, taking in every detail painted onto the canvas, feeling its texture through sight alone and thinking if what was in front of their eyes was actually real. "This is...I never thought it'd be like that," he said, completely dumbstruck by the sight.

Johan chuckled. “Yeah, it’s quite a sight, even from this far. It’ll probably be even more impressive when it’s done.”  _ ‘Assuming everything goes well, of course.’ _

He kept his paranoid pessimism to himself, though. Based on Lindow’s earlier reaction to his words (which he’d meant to be uplifting and  _ hopeful) _ , it seemed like he wasn’t the best at being...well,  _ positive _ .

"Yeah…" the youth replied numbly.

The two stood there for a while, admiring the towering structure far off in the distance. The Aegis to shield mankind from the monsters that haunted them reflected the light of the sun with all the intensity of a mirror.

After a bit, Kota let out a wild howl of excitement, catching Johan by surprise. "Alright! I'm all pumped up now!" he said while jumping around. "That's what I needed to lift my spirits!"

“Well, that’s good,” Johan said, scratching the back of his head and letting out a yawn. “Whew. Lecture must’ve taken more out of me than I thought.”

"Well, yeah. It was kind of boring and pointless, but that's just how it is!" Kota replied with a laugh. "But what does it matter if we can't kill the Aragami forever? As long as I can get Nozomi and Mom to Aegis, then that's good enough for me!"

Johan gave a small smile. “I’m sure you’ll be able to.” His smile swiftly shifted into something more mischievous. “After all, the family of The Most High And Grossly Incandescent Overlord Kota surely are of eminent importance.”

The youth's smile faltered at his words, his excitement vanished completely. Johan's comment didn't take the life out of him entirely, but it certainly dimmed it considerably.  _ ‘Oh, fuck.’ _

Kota took a while to think of what to say before replying. "Hey, you've been out on your first mission, right?" the boy asked Johan. "You saw that place next to the wall, didn't you?"

“The little town? Yeah, I saw it when we were passing through,” Johan replied.

Kota nodded at his reply. "Well...up until I was ten, I lived there."

Johan didn’t say anything. What  _ could  _ he say to that?

"Yeah, it was pretty rough on all of us," he added when he saw Johan's expression. "Things really began to look up when I was...eight? Nine? I can't remember too well. Dad got a job at a Fenrir factory and began to save up. He wanted to take us to the nicer parts of the city."

The boy put both of his hands on his pockets. "And well, that's when the wall got breached."

Johan inhaled sharply, and looked over at Kota. “I…”

He didn’t know what to say.  _ He didn’t know what to say! _ He was  _ shit _ at this sort of thing! He half raised a hand, as if to reach out to the other boy, but thought better of it and let it fall to his side. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he finally settled on, his voice quiet.

"Yeah, not easy to hear that. I guess," Kota said sheepishly, a small tinge of melancholy bleeding through. "Dad didn't make it, but the God Eaters managed to get to us before Mom...well, you know.

"She was pregnant with Nozomi at the time, so she used Dad's savings to help us move into the ghetto. It's not what he wanted, but it's better than being back there," the boy continued his tale. "We've been living off what remained of that. I don't know how Mom managed to make it last that long, but we were running out of money.

"So I joined the God Eaters," Kota said with a chuckle, turning back to face the Aegis. "Mom was against it at first. It took me a whole year to ease her into the idea, and even like that, I'm sure she's pretty worried."

Johan gave a hollow smile. “Of course she is; that’s what mothers _ do _ . You could be made of indestructible god-metal and your mother would still fret.” He let out a sigh. “But it’s not like her worries are unfounded…”

The other Recruit shrugged as he glanced back at Johan. "I guess. I was pretty scared when I first saw an Ogretail. I know we're putting our lives on the line here..."

The boy let a smile grace his face as he looked and pointed at the dome far out on the sea. "But that right there? I can look at that and know for sure that one of these days, Mom and Nozomi are going to be right there.

"And that I made sure of it."

_ ‘I hope you’re right, Kota. Really I do.’ _ Johan did his best to not let his thoughts show on his face as he replied, “Well, you’ve certainly got the right attitude.” He mimed lifting a glass. “To Aegis, then.”

"To Aegis!" Kota replied while imitating him.

Well, at least him cramming his proverbial foot in his mouth hadn’t driven off yet another friend... _ yet. _

He  _ really _ hoped that all his paranoia and skepticism was unfounded. This world was enough of a shitshow  _ without _ the possibility of Aegis being a failure or a scam.

Only time would tell, he supposed.


	10. Briefing: Corrupt Cocoon

As the days rolled by, Johan began to settle in a routine: go out on a mission with Lindow, head into the City of Mercy to kill more Ogretails, and when they were done, return to the Den. He didn't have that much time to himself when he got back, but it was enough that he decided to do things before plopping down and going to sleep.

Sometimes he hung out with Kota in the lounge at the reception, talking about inane things and goofing off for a while. A good amount of that free time, however, was spent at the terminal back in his room.

He decided to look up information on Aragami he'd be facing as a recruit. He wanted to see just what kinds of things he'd be staring at in his tenure as a God Eater and how to take them down most efficiently. In his search he saw three different Aragami that he'd have to deal with.

First was the Ogretail. He'd already been acquainted with them and as he'd gone out on missions with Lindow, he'd gotten better at killing them quickly. Their cores were always located at their throats.

Next was something called a Cocoon Maiden. His first thought upon seeing one was that they looked like some sort of alien sarcophagus with a strange ribcage plating. These Aragami popped open said ribcage, impaled things on black spikes that exploded out of their chest and retracted them to devour their prey inside of them. They were also noted to be able to shoot out bullets of some strange energy that was neither thermal nor electric in nature, but had no truly special qualities to it. It was dubbed "Divine" because of their association with Aragami.

The strangest thing about the Maidens, however, was that they were stationary. They were  _ known _ to be able to move, as otherwise they wouldn't have spread all over the world starting from America, but strangely enough, no one had actually  _ reported  _ to have seen them move.

_ ‘And I thought Weeping Angels were terrifying,’  _ Johan had mused with a shudder.

The last Aragami he laid eyes on was fairly distressing to look at. The Zygote was a black egg with an eye next to the top. In front of it was a  _ thing  _ which looked like a woman embedded into the ovoid. The upper part of her head was nowhere in sight, her arms were instead some sort of wing-like spikes and her legs were connected at the knees like a mermaid, ending up in a strange tube which reportedly shot out a poisonous gas.

The Zygotes were the most curious of the bunch. Apparently, Aragami were not unlikely to eat one another just like normal animals would. However, other species were not aggressive against the Zygotes; as a matter of fact, they would outright accept them into their packs with little issue, possibly due to the Bias phenomenon. They had extremely keen eyesight and were able to produce a loud sound that could attract other Aragami to them, which they'd do regularly to secure food for the pack.

In other words, they had a mutualistic relationship with other Aragami. They'd point to where the others could find prey and once the others had done the work they'd eat the scraps. Even so, there had been reports of Zygotes making their own packs, so they were not afraid to do things on their own and didn’t rely solely on other species to survive.

Those three species seemed to have variants called the "Fallen". There wasn't that much of a difference with those, apparently; they were simply Aragami who had adapted to extreme temperature conditions. One of the Fallen caught his eye in how strange it was, however. The Cocoon Maidens had a variant which was able to shoot out electricity. The database said: "Generally thought to have evolved when a Cocoon Maiden was struck by lightning: details are murky."

At that point, Johan decided to just chalk it up to Oracle Cells being complete and utter bullshit.

Seeing all of this, he chose to look for a way to enhance his God Arc like Lindow had done with his own. He didn't find any information on that on his terminal, so he decided to ask Hibari instead.

As he arrived at the reception, he could see several people on the ground floor. Instructor Amamiya was talking to some of the other rookies; meanwhile, a young man he recognized from when he was greeted at the gate on his first day, but whose name he didn't remember, was talking to Hibari, leaning on the desk to get closer to her. Hibari herself seemed to want to keep some distance from him as they talked but couldn't do much.

Lastly, Lindow was sitting on the lounge, talking with a girl who seemed like a mechanic of sorts, if her large gloves, safety goggles and grease-stained tanktop and skin were any indication. The Captain noticed Johan's presence and lazily waved at him.

The rookie returned the wave and walked over. “How’re things going?” he asked by way of greeting.

"Same as usual, rook. Been a little bit more busy lately, though," he said with a with a shrug. "But I gotta say, you caught me at the right time, I was getting a bit tired of getting an earful from our friend, here."

At that, he pointed at the girl near him, who simply shook her head and chuckled at the motion. "You're never hearing the end of it though, Lindow," she replied as she got up and gave a small wave at Johan. "Hey, the name's Licca. Nice to meet you."

He nodded, a small smile on his face. “Johan; a pleasure.” The smile became a mischievous grin as he then asked, “Now what’s this I’m hearing about Lindow and embarrassing stories? I’m  _ always  _ game for that.”

"Oh, no. He was just joking around and I followed along," the newly introduced mechanic corrected him. "He just wanted me to tune up his God Arc's shield a bit. Lately it's been creaking strangely when he deploys it."

"Well, yeah. It's kind of weird, and it's not doing anything to its performance, but better safe than sorry." The younger Amamiya scratched at the back of his head before turning to look at Johan. "All joking aside, you actually came at the right time; I needed to tell you that you'll be going on another mission in about an hour."

Johan blinked. “Alrighty then. I guess my questions about upgrading or altering my God Arc will have to wait until the mission’s done. Anyways, mission details?”

"Well, you'll be facing a different Aragami from the usual Ogretails, for one. Cocoon Maidens, ever heard of them?" the man answered with a frown, then continued talking. "They're pretty annoying, but you should be able to take them down without much trouble."

Johan nodded. “Yeah, I actually just read up on them; they’re basically living turrets, and their core’s at the place where their sternum would be, right?”

"Pretty much. Except for the spikes, gotta watch out for those," Lindow continued with a yawn. "Normally I'd be going with you on this mission, but I've got something else coming up, so I won't be. Luckily, there's someone who was free, so I'm leaving you in her capable hands."

Johan raised an eyebrow, a playful grin on his face. “Slacking off so soon? I suppose it’s to be expected.” The grin faded to his usual small smile. “In all seriousness, if you say this person is capable, I trust your judgment. When will I be meeting her?”

"Well, knowing her, she's probably getting everything ready, so I'd say you'll meet her when it's time to go," the Captain replied while getting up and stretching. "Her name's Sakuya Tachibana. She's a long range God Arc user, a crack shot, and my eternal frenemy. All in all, you're definitely in good hands, trust me."

Johan chuckled with a nod. “How could I doubt such a ringing endorsement? Skills aside, anybody savvy enough to be  _ your  _ frenemy is someone I  _ have  _ to meet.”

"And now I'm afraid of what'll happen when you two start talking," the man said dryly. "Great job, rookie, you've made your superior officer worry about his well-being. You're really moving up in life. Proud of you."

"And with that, I've gotta go do my own prep work," Lindow added before turning to face Licca. "So yeah, think it'll be ready in an hour or two?"

"Should be. Even if there's something other than that noise, I should be able to get it done in time," the mechanic answered while giving him a thumbs up.

"Right, got it. Talk to you guys later and good luck with your mission, rook," the Captain said while walking away and waving them goodbye.

“Same to you, Captain,” Johan replied. Once Lindow was gone, he nodded to Licca, excusing himself, then turned to leave...then froze, realizing that Lindow had _ failed to tell him _ where he was supposed to be meeting this Sakuya person. He palmed his face.

_ ‘Lindooooow!’ _

"What is it?" the girl asked when she saw his distressed expression.

“...He didn’t tell me where I was supposed to meet my partner for the mission,” he replied, removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, well. Maybe you could ask Hibari.." she said before staring at the receptionist, who was still being talked up by the young man. "As soon as Tatsumi stops flirting with her, I guess."

_ ‘Tatsumi!  _ That _ was the name.’ _

“That doesn’t look like it’ll be happening any time soon,” Johan remarked dryly, “If what I’m seeing now is any indication.”

_ "Nooo _ , I'm pretty sure he's almost done for today," she commented before looking back at the rookie God Eater. "Anyways, you mentioned that you wanted to know about upgrading your God Arc. Judging by how Lindow was treating you, you're one of the new recruits, right?"

“I am,” Johan confirmed. “And through some contrivance of luck, I happened to be compatible with a New-Type God Arc. So yeah, I’m kinda curious to see what sorts of upgrades or alterations can be made to it.”

"Oh, trust me, I've been waiting to get my hands on it for a while now!" Licca gushed with a cheerful expression. "The New-Types are just fascinating and I've wanted to work on one ever since they first started production, they're not just the best of both worlds, they're even better than that!"

When her chatter began to approach a crescendo, she caught herself and coughed into her hand. "Ah, right. But I'll have to wait a bit longer for that," she added with a frown, clearly just talking to herself before addressing Johan once more. "Well, sadly you're not allowed to ask for anything on that front until you finally become a Private, so until then we're both out of luck."

Johan sighed. “Ah, well. Makes sense, I guess. I’ll just have to keep on keeping on, then. I look forward to working with you in the future, though!”

"Yes, please do your best. I'm begging you," Licca said with a small bow. "In any case, when you get promoted to Private, just give me a call and I'll take care of all your modding needs. Blades, shields, guns, bullet chips...just name it and I'll hook you up!"

Johan smiled a bit wider. “I’ll be sure to do that. I’ll admit to being quite curious to see just how much can be done to a God Arc, so I’m pretty eager myself.”

"A lot more than one would initially imagine, actually," the mechanic added with a grin before pointing towards the reception desk, which Tatsumi was walking away from with a goofy smile. "And that's your cue. I have to do a few things and get started on the checkup for Lindow's God Arc, so I'll be seeing you later. Good luck with your mission, Johan!"

“Thanks. It was good to meet you, Licca,” replied Johan with a nod. The rookie then approached the reception desk, giving Hibari a friendly nod.

* * *

As it turned out, Hibari was able to give Johan all the information Lindow neglected to mention. This time, the mission would take him to a place known as the Wailing Plains. Once part of a city of high-rises, the skies of the plains were always covered in dark grey clouds and the wind often formed whirlwinds of varying strengths. At the very center of the place was a huge crater, one which looked like it had been formed by a meteor.

Research on the reasons why the place had such harsh climate was not considered a priority, but attempts had been made in the past. All of them came back with little success due to the fact that it was also a nesting ground for several Aragami species.

The distance between the locale and the Den was greater than that of the City of Mercy, so they'd be going by chopper for half of the trip, then stopping by a small outpost where they could pick up a jeep to go the rest of the way, deeper into the plains.

After picking up his God Arc, Johan headed straight towards the rooftop, where he was supposed to wait until the appointed time.

He didn't have to wait for long before he saw the doors open up. A man with a pilot suit scurried over to one of the helicopters. A second later, he heard the clicking of heels on metal before being greeted by the sight of a dark haired woman wearing an outfit Johan would’ve expected to see in a dance club, not on a combat mission. That said, he’d spent enough time around Kota “Jojo Fashion” Fujiki to be rather inured to people’s eclectic choices of apparel.

That said, even if he was ignoring the backless tank top and the sarong, he still had to raise a mental eyebrow at the high heels. Those  _ couldn’t  _ be combat-efficient.

As she stepped forth, another rather  _ prominent  _ thing came into view, that being a long, rectangular cannon which she carried around easily with a single hand.

“Sakuya Tachibana, I presume?” Johan asked, turning to face her, standing at rest with his hands at his sides.

"The one and only," she replied with a friendly wave. "So, you're the new rookie Lindow was talking about, aren't you?"

“I suppose that depends on what sort of rumors he’s been spreading about me, doesn’t it?” Johan shot back. “But yes, I’m Johan Lewis.”

"Nice to meet you," Sakuya replied with a nod. "So, this will be your first mission with a long-range God Eater by your side, right?"

“Yep. Usually I’m fire support, considering Lindow’s got a close combat type.”

"I've heard, but he's said you're no slouch on that department either, so I'm sure I can trust you to take care of that," she complimented before laying the tip of her God Arc on the floor. "Right...so here's how this mission will go: you'll be taking the lead and calling the shots here, meanwhile I'm going to support you from afar. Wherever you go, I'll follow.

"The one thing you should try to avoid doing is running off on your own," she added. "Just stay in my line of sight and don't go too far. I'm sure I can take a shot from really far away, but if anything happens, we'll want to be close to each other."

Johan nodded readily. “Perfectly sensible. Not much point going on a mission with a team if you don’t work together.”

"You've got it!" the woman exclaimed. "Let's get going now. This should be a fairly easy mission, but we're probably going to arrive late at night, so we'll want to get this done as soon as possible if we want to get any sleep in a while."

Johan nodded his assent once more, though privately he bemoaned the possibility of missing sleep. He got less than he’d like as it was, what with the whole ‘being in an anti-apocalypse special forces group’ thing he had going on.

With that, the two got on the chopper. The elder God Eater instructed him on how to properly adjust the seat belt and gave him a large, bulky headset to drown the sound of the propeller.

On top of that, she also gave him some strawberry-flavored chewing gum for later. It was a nice surprise to find that one of his favorite flavors of gum had survived the apocalypse. Sometimes, it was the little things that made the difference.


	11. Corrupt Cocoon

The trip towards the Wailing Plains was uneventful for the most part, save for some minor turbulence they experienced along the way. Once they came within eyesight, however, Johan couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. The word ‘Outpost’ implied that it was a base of sorts, with personel ready to attend to them and the needs of God Eaters when they arrive. Instead, they’d come into land in front of a small cave that had two Jeeps covered by long green tarps parked within it.

Sakuya explained that they’d have no way to maintain the sheer number of outposts they had if each and every one of them was as well stocked and equipped as he imagined. So instead, they had dozens of stashes of supplies and vehicles spread out throughout the land. Everything was laced with Bias Factor, making it unappetizing for Aragami, and in case they just went for it anyways, there wasn't enough in each stash for the loss to be lamented.

Johan supposed that the logic checked out; if resources were scarce compared to the number of outposts that needed supplies, it only made sense to make sure that they weren’t putting all their eggs in one basket, and to keep some of those eggs mobile to boot.  _ He _ couldn’t think of a better idea, that was for damn sure.

The rest of the road was bumpy, but they weren’t attacked by Aragami along the way, so it certainly wasn't terrible. As they went across hills and the sky began to darken, the two God Eaters soon caught sight of the mission area.

_ ‘Well, I guess I know why they’re called the “Wailing Plains” now,’ _ Johan thought as he listened to the howling of the tempest before him. He then turned to regard Sakuya expectantly; he certainly didn’t have any experience traversing a stormfront.

"Don't worry too much," the woman admonished with a slight chuckle when she saw his expression. "It may look bad, but this weather is actually pretty mild compared to how I've seen it at times – and we're not going too deep, anyways."

Johan let out a low whistle. “If this is  _ mild _ ,” he began, waving a hand at the whirling stormcloud occupying the center of the city, “I’d hate to see what’s considered  _ severe _ .” He shook his head. “Hmm. Is there anything else I ought to know, or shall we get underway?”

"Well, I already told you what you needed to know back at the Den, so as long as you keep all that in mind, there shouldn't be a problem," she replied before reaching for some gum she left on the Jeep's dashboard. "I think we can approach a little bit more before getting off, so let's do that. Hibari should let us know if anything happens, but keep your eyes open anyways, alright?"

Johan nodded. “Understood,” he replied seriously, already getting into his mission mindset. He kept his eyes peeled and his head on a swivel exactly as she’d instructed, combing their surroundings with a careful, intense gaze.

* * *

His vigilance was fortunately unneeded, as they arrived without any incident.

After leaving the Jeep, the two followed Hibari's instructions with Johan taking point, his God Arc in blade mode. The two trekked through small cliffs and eventually came across a building which seemed like it should have been taller from where he stood. Sakuya explained that the two of them were actually on a cliff, and that the building's foundations were at the bottom of it. From where they were, the two could enter through the upper floors and descend into the area where the Cocoon Maidens were supposed to be.

When they made their way inside, he realized the building was actually sort of tilted. Not as much as, say, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but still noticeably so. Enough to make walking around a little disorienting though it wasn't too bad. Thankfully, Johan had fairly good balance, all things considered. This was either a product of the martial arts training he’d gone through when he was younger, of his God Eater training; perhaps a mixture of both. Regardless of its origin, his surefootedness proved useful in traversing the tilted building.

Eventually they came across a hallway with some windows to the outdoors.

"Hey, Johan. Let's take a look," the Senior God Eater suggested. With a nod, Johan obliged, peering out of the windows to survey more of the Wailing Plains. What he saw was a wasteland of rocks, moss and howling winds stretching out in all directions. Collapsed buildings could be seen off in the distance, and further beyond he could spot rocky formations with sharp points. It was like seeing a mountain range of shark fangs. It probably would’ve been more ominous if it weren’t so stereotypically “eighties supervillain lair”.

"Hibari, anything you can tell us?" Sakuya asked.

"Well, the Oracle response is not far from your location, can't you see them from there?" the operator responded.

"No, there's nothing around," the woman replied with a small frown. "That's concerning. Johan. We're nineteen storeys away from the exit, keep your eyes open."

“Understood,” Johan replied with a nod.

The two proceeded through the building, looking for a set of stairs. It didn't take long for them to find them, and the two proceeded to descend until they were three storeys away from the exit. The path to the next floor was blocked by rubble from the surrounding walls, and it didn't seem like they could move enough of it to make a path.

"Huh, so it's collapsed? Well, that's one less easy entry to this area," Hibari noted. "Johan, Sakuya, can you look for a hole on the floor you can use to jump to a lower floor? If you can't find one, you'll have to figure out some other way to go down."

"I'm not sure if there's anything like that but, but we can try," Sakuya answered and directed a glance at the rookie.

Johan scratched his cheek. “Well, unless that cannon of yours can blow a hole in the ground without risking damaging crucial structural supports, I don’t see many options. Maybe rappelling down the sides?”

"Hey, that's not a bad idea, actually," she replied with a smile. "I don't have anything on me to rappel down right now, but I can definitely make us a way down if I find a good place away from load bearing walls."

Johan blinked. “Well, I’ll just trust that you know what you’re doing, then.” Johan gave a wry smile. “However, if we end up buried, I  _ will _ haunt you.” After a moment’s consideration, he added, “And Lindow.”

"Aw, don't you have any faith in your seniors?" the God Eater teased with a wink. "Don't worry, I know where to aim. That being said, let's keep that as a last resort; it'll eat through my ammo and it'd be better to save that for when we're fighting the Cocoons."

Johan nodded. “That’s a good point. Any ideas, or should we just search for an alternate route like Hibari said?”

"Let's look for a hole we can jump down into first," she replied. "If that fails, we can think of something else or just go with that."

“Will do. You take one side, I’ll take the other. Then, we can swap, just in case one of us overlooked something. That work for you?”

"This seems like it's an apartment complex, we can probably search each room on our own." Sakuya nodded in affirmation. "Yes, that's a good plan. Let's get going, then."

The two of them advanced out into the hallway of that floor. Just as Sakuya advanced out into the place, she yelled  _ “Duck!” _

Johan's response was immediate and so was his senior's. As he began to lower himself, the woman leaped forward. He felt an arm crash into his shoulders as the two fell down to the floor.

At that moment, his face suspended in mid air, he heard a high pitched sound. It lasted for only an instant before he heard the shattering of glass upon landing. Shards and flakes fell on his back and legs.

"What!? How did they—" Hibari gasped. "I'm sorry! I couldn't detect anything different until it was too late!"

“What are we dealing with and how many are there?” Johan asked. There’d be time to question why Hibari couldn’t detect the Aragami later; right now, there were more pressing issues.

"It's still the same as before, they just reacted so quickly I didn't notice a change in status until now!" she answered hurriedly. "Three Cocoon Maidens, all out of the building at different spots!

"This is bad! If they're this quick then they're probably old ones!" Sakuya said as she lifted her face from the floor and turned to look to a wall. Doing the same thing, Johan directed his view towards what she was looking at: a decently sized scorch mark on the wall that hadn’t been there before.

"They're strong, but nothing extraordinary. We should be safe from their sniping as long as we stay hidden by the walls," she added after observing the damage done. Right after, she got into a sitting position, leaning against the concrete. She took a deep breath to steady herself before muttering, "Alright, how should we do this…?"

Johan pulled himself into a seated position as well, taking extra care to keep the concrete between him and the ornery monsters outside. “Well...I  _ can _ make that jump, but I can’t imagine it’d be a good idea unless I can manage to block their fire mid-fall, or if you can intercept their shots. But if I  _ do _ make it down there, I  _ should _ be able to block or dodge their attacks and get in close, especially with you laying down covering fire.”

The woman seemed to mull over the idea for a little bit before nodding. "That's kind of reckless, but it could work," Sakuya commented. "Then again, there's not much else that we can do against Cocoon Maidens in a flat plain with no cover." She stopped for a second, her expression frozen in place. "Wait, but..." she mumbled. "No, wait, maybe it could work..."

"Uh, Sakuya…? Are you alright?" Hibari asked concernedly.

Sakuya let out a sigh of resignation. "Damn it, you guys. Why did I hang around you for so long?" she lamented.

_ “I wonder if she’s engaging in the time-honored practice of “Blame Lindow”,’ _ Johan mused.

* * *

Johan was of two minds on this idea. On one hand, if it worked, it put him in less danger than his own. On the other hand, it seemed like a  _ bit _ of a stretch, though he supposed Sakuya would know better than him how these things would react to her gambit. On the third (theoretical and rather irrelevant) hand,  _ hot damn _ did Sakuya's display of physical prowess do  _ all kinds  _ of things to him that he really shouldn’t be focusing on mid-operation.

Sakuya had her back to a wall, close to the window and on one end of the hallway. Meanwhile, Johan was at the other end, crouching so he wouldn't be seen by the Maidens, ready to vault over the broken window on a second's notice. His cue to take the leap was entirely dependant on the Aragami; the sound of three shots. When he heard all of them, that was the moment he'd come down.

The two God Eaters shared a glance before Sakuya nodded meaningfully. It was time.

With a heavy grinding noise, the woman pushed the door she had unhinged from a nearby room into the line of sight of the Cocoon Maidens. The response was instantaneous; with a high-pitched sound still within the range of human hearing, the Aragami fired.

The first shot broke through the window, shattering it into thousands of pieces, and slammed into the door, punching a hole right through it. The second shot seemed to have missed, as it hit the wall beside the target that Sakuya used to bait them.

Johan didn’t stay behind to watch the results of the third one.

The rookie leapt forward, and instantly spotted the three monsters, equidistant from each other, the crown on each of their heads had split down the middle and moved to the sides, revealing disgusting, pulsating sacks of flesh arranged in a way similar to a flowerbud. As he fell, he could see them morph, disgusting flesh uncoiling and retracting inside their heads before all of the parts clamped shut to reveal the statue-like faces of the Aragami. It was only when he landed that they turned their heads in tandem to face him.

Even as he landed, Johan was moving, hitting the switch on his God Arc and deploying his shield as he dashed towards the nearest Maiden. The trio was unable to act immediately, so he was able to cross half of the way before they got their act together and took aim. Before they could fire, a streak of light made its to the centermost Maiden, slamming into the side of its face. He felt only two shots slam into his shield a second after.

Pushing forward in spite of the blowback from the shots, Johan continued towards the first of the monsters, trusting Sakuya to have his back with continued fire support. At that moment, two more shots got to his shield before the woman in question fired another shot straight at the other Cocoon he wasn't going after.

Finally reaching the first Aragami, he thrust his God Arc towards where the thing’s sternum ought to be as he came up to it, adding the momentum of his sprint to his strike. His aim was only slightly off, but that was enough to stop the blow from being a decisive one, as the point of the blade was driven into the thing's ribcage. It writhed around in pain, but the weapon didn't penetrate very far. Hearing Sakuya fire even more shots in the background, Johan ripped his blade from the monster’s chest, backing away slightly before adjusting his aim and stabbing at the crack between the Aragami’s ribs again.

This time his God Arc slid right through; there was some resistance, but he drove it all the way into its chest. As he heard a cracking noise, the monster let out a cry of anguish before popping its ribcage open with enough strength to shake Johan right off and launch him a small distance.

As he was scrambling to his feet, he saw many black spikes extend and retract wildly from the monster's insides as it trashed about wildly in pain. In the area that Johan had hit, he could see a glint of something magenta. Just as quickly as it began to go berserk, it was put down when Sakuya hit the exposed core dead on, stopping its movements entirely.

"Johan, take the one on your right!" the woman instructed as soon at the Aragami's body went limp.

The young man followed her order without pause, darting towards the Cocoon Maiden that Sakuya had indicated, shield before him and ready to block any incoming shots. For her part, his senior kept firing at the one he wasn't charging.

As he approached, the Aragami moved in a strange fashion; its torso was sliding upwards from the ribs up, making it taller. Johan tensed, then strafed slightly to one side as he continued his approach.

"Johan, stop!" Hibari screamed over comms but by then it was too late. From the space it made by rising in such a fashion, spikes exploded outwards in all directions around it. He didn't have enough time hunker down or prepare in any way as some of the black tendrils slammed in several points; one struck the shield, but another three grazed both of his calves and his right thigh.

Johan was forced to bite back a hiss of pain as the spikes suddenly retracted; he felt as though the wounded parts were on fire. Meanwhile, the Maiden's face turned in his direction. Johan halted, making sure to keep his God Arc, and thereby his shield, between the Aragami and himself. The Maiden's crown split once more, revealing the same bulbous protuberance from before.

"Dodge!" he heard Sakuya yell over coms.

Johan did as he was bidden, dashing to one side and shifting his weapon into its firearm mode. He moved not a second too late, as the Cocoon Maiden's projectile sailed past the point where his head was only a second ago, uncovered by the relatively small shield. Johan continued to circle the monster, firing off a few shots at its center mass from his God Arc as he drew slightly closer to it.

The shots landed on the Aragami's left ribs, leaving marks all over its exoskeleton and making it stagger back with each shot. After its face returned to the usual form, the monster tried its best to follow Johan, but each hit made its entire body shake violently.

The stinging of his wounds served as a blunt reminder of the danger of engaging the Maiden in close range, but his ammunition was limited. That said, if he could kill the creature  _ without _ risking impalement, that would be preferable. Johan suppressed a shudder as he backed away a bit, still firing at it as he did so.

"Johan, go to its back and focus your fire on the spot below the ribs!" Sakuya commanded before he saw her focus her fire on the same spot at the front. He obeyed, darting around behind the Aragami and pelting the spot with shot.

This seemed to have a greater effect on the beast, as a piercing trill reached his ears through the continued sound of gunfire, the two continued their barrage until Hibari confirmed the death of the Aragami.

"Just one more left!" the operator exclaimed. "Sakuya left it dazed, finish it off!"

Johan ran at it, ignoring the pain of his injuries and shifting his God Arc back into its blade mode as he approached. As Hibari had said, the Aragami seemed stunned; its head was covered in burns that left it almost completely black, and it was swaying back and forth listlessly even as he thrust his blade at the gap down the center of its ribs.

A quavering sound escaped it as the blade slid neatly down the center and ended its life upon piercing right through the core.

As soon as the kill was confirmed, Johan exhaled heavily, then swore under his breath.  _ ‘That was  _ way _ too close.’ _

* * *

Johan thought the way back was going to be more difficult thanks to his injuries, but as soon as he reached the building, Sakuya tossed him a blister pack with five pills and told him to pop one. He was rather suspicious of the mysterious drugs, but knowing that it'd be miles harder to get back to where Sakuya was without at least some medication he decided to down the thing without hesitation. The pain didn't go away immediately, but it took only a little while to dull and eventually disappear.

Once on the Jeep, Sakuya kept a close eye on their surroundings as they moved away from the plains. At one point, Hibari notified them that there was a large Aragami approaching the area they'd been at before. Knowing that they were a fair distance away from it but not wanting to take any risks, the woman put the pedal to the metal and got the two of them away as fast as possible.

As they approached the "outpost" they took the Jeep from, Sakuya called the chopper over so they could get back to the Den as soon as possible.

"What a mission..." she said with a sigh of relief, which was soon replaced by a perturbed expression. "I'm not going to hear the end of it as soon as Lindow finds out I actually did it..."

Johan snorted. “I’m sure he has no room to talk.”

"No, you don't get it. This is exactly the kind of thing he'd laugh about and do," she continued with a pout. "Him and another of the God Eaters from the First Unit were tossing around ideas about things they wanted to do one day." She glanced upwards, sulking. "'What if I rip a door off its hinges and then surf it down a cliff?' that other guy said. Lindow chuckled then started adding more details to it, like tricks he could perform to steer it."

Johan blinked. “They sound like a real pack of wild cards. Makes me wonder if you  _ have _ to be eccentric to get good at this job.”

"Well, not really, but there  _ are  _ a ton of oddballs around,” Sakuya replied with a sigh. "I think his name was...Eric? Yes, that's probably him. Anyways, that talk just popped in my mind while we were on the mission and that's why I did it." She moped a bit more. "I can't believe I actually went through with it though. He's going to tell everyone the second he hears."

Johan, not at all good at comforting people and currently pretty damn tired, only had one thing to offer. “There, there..?”

"You know, I don't think you're supposed to say that with confusion," Sakuya deadpanned.

Johan chuckled awkwardly.


End file.
